was a Japanese

physician A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...

and scholar of ''

rangaku ''Rangaku'' (Kyūjitai: , ), and by extension , is a body of knowledge developed by Japan through its contacts with the Dutch enclave of Dejima, which allowed Japan to keep abreast of Western technology and medicine in the period when the countr ...

'' (Western studies). 1751 – August 2, 1809 He served the

Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. The Tokugawa shogunate was established by Tokugawa Ieyasu after victory at the Battle of Sekigahara, ending the civil wars ...

as a physician and as a translator of

Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...

. He was the older brother of author and ''rangaku'' scholar

Morishima Chūryō was an Edo period Japanese author of popular fiction who also wrote a number of works in the field of rangaku (Western studies). He wrote under many pen names, including Manzōtei, Shinra Manzō (or, conventionally, Shinra Banshō), and Tenjiku ...

. As the eldest son of the Katsuragawa family, Dutch-style physicians to the shōgun, Hoshū was appointed to that position in

1777 Events January–March * January 2 – American Revolutionary War – Battle of the Assunpink Creek: American general George Washington's army repulses a British attack by Lieutenant General Charles Cornwallis, in a second ...

. He began teaching at the shogunal School of Medicine in 1794. In addition to collaborating with Sugita Genpaku on ''

Kaitai Shinsho is a medical text translated into Japanese during the Edo period. It was written by Sugita Genpaku, and was published by Suharaya Ichibee () in 1774, the third year of An'ei. The body comprises four volumes, the illustrations, one. The conten ...

'', the first Japanese translation of a Western treatise on anatomy, he was the author of ''Hokusa Bunryaku'', one of the earliest Japanese accounts of Russia. He learned

surgery Surgery is a medical specialty that uses manual and instrumental techniques to diagnose or treat pathological conditions (e.g., trauma, disease, injury, malignancy), to alter bodily functions (e.g., malabsorption created by bariatric surgery s ...

with

Nakagawa Jun'an was a Japanese medical doctor, botanist, and scholar of ''rangaku'' (Western learning). He was a junior colleague of Sugita Genpaku, with whom he studied and worked in Obama Domain, Wakasa Province, a center for Western medicine in Edo period Jap ...

from

Carl Peter Thunberg Carl Peter Thunberg, also known as Karl Peter von Thunberg, Carl Pehr Thunberg, or Carl Per Thunberg (11 November 1743 – 8 August 1828), was a Sweden, Swedish Natural history, naturalist and an Apostles of Linnaeus, "apostle" of Carl Linnaeus ...

when he was in

Nagasaki , officially , is the capital and the largest Cities of Japan, city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. Founded by the Portuguese, the port of Portuguese_Nagasaki, Nagasaki became the sole Nanban trade, port used for tr ...

. By the recommendation of Thunberg,

Kirill Laxman Erik Gustavovich Laxmann () (July 27, 1737 – January 6, 1796) was a Finnish-Swedish clergyman, explorer and natural scientist born in Savonlinna (Nyslott) in Finland, then part of Sweden. He is remembered today for his taxonomic work on the fa ...

wrote a letter to him. However, the letter was taken by Tokugawa shogunate and never returned. (See. Kirill Laxman#Letters to Japanese scholars)

References

*Imaizumi Genkichi (1965). ''Rangaku no i.e. Katsuragawa no hitobito.'' Tokyo: Shinozaki Shorin. 1751 births 1809 deaths 18th-century Japanese physicians Japanese scholars Rangaku 18th-century Japanese translators {{Japan-med-bio-stub