IKEDA, Zuisen 池田瑞仙.

Jūkō Tōka ben’yō 重校痘科辨要 [Essentials of the Treatment of Smallpox].

Several woodcut illus. in the text. Ten vols. in six. 8vo, orig. semi-stiff wrappers, orig. block-printed title label on upper covers, new stitching. Edo, Kyoto, & Osaka: 1821.

Second edition (1st ed.: 1788), gathering for the first time three important texts (see below) by Ikeda on Chinese vaccination. Ikeda (1735?-1816) was a member of a prominent family of physicians most famous for their smallpox treatments, which they kept secret. He studied with Saimon-ge, a Chinese physician living in Japan. In 1798, the shogunate opened the first medical school (Igakukwan), and the etiology of smallpox was first studied in this school by Ikeda.

“Chinese vaccination (i.e. inoculation) has been known in Japan since about the year 1653 when one Sai Manko first introduced the practice and taught the art of Chinese vaccination to Masanao Ikeda. After that time the Japanese made rather thorough studies of vaccination, using especially three old Chinese books on the subject: Shoni toshin horon (n.d.) by Chin Banc of the Sung Dynasty; Toshin bengi kinkyo-roku (n.d.) by Loy Teiken; and Toka-ko (n.d.) by Shu Son. A century later, in 1788, a descendant of Masanao, named Zuisen Ikeda, wrote three books, each of one volume, entitled Toso membu-den, Toso shinzetsu-den and Toso shinzetsu-zu. The first two of those writings contained illustrations of the faces of patients suffering from smallpox.”–Mestler, A Galaxy of Old Japanese Medical Books, V, p. 200.

The illustrations depict scars incurred by the disease and the faces of patients with smallpox. The text offers drug prescriptions, methods of diagnosis, and treatments.

Fine and fresh set.