HEISTER, Lorenz.

Yōjutsu chishin 要術知新 [Important Secret Techniques, Just Acquired].

Trans. by Otsuki (or Ootsuki) Genkan 大槻玄幹 & Otsuki Gentaku 大槻玄沢. Numerous fine woodcut illus. in the text. 26.5; 40; 26.5 folding leaves (without the six leaves of ads at end). Three vols. 8vo, orig. semi-stiff greenish-gray wrappers, orig. block-printed title labels on upper covers (bindings a little wormed). Edo & Kyoto: Suharaya ihachi 須原屋伊八 et al., Preface dated 1824.

First edition in Japanese; this is a very rare book with no copy outside of Japan. As Mestler writes: “The situation with regard to the ‘Yoi shinsho’ is all but hopelessly mixed up” (p. 213 in his A Galaxy of Old Japanese Medical Books, V). He goes on to somewhat clear things up (but in a passage on p. 214 questions the existence of printed copies and suggests the wrong date), and we shall try to make things even clearer. When a copy of the 1755 Dutch edition of Heister’s great work on surgery was brought to Japan in 1767 or 1768, several famous Japanese medical doctors made translations. In 1792 (or 1790) Sugita Gempaku made a translation of part of the work, but it was never published. Later in the same year, Otsuki Gentaku, who was well versed in the Dutch language and compiled the first Dutch grammar in the Japanese language, finished a translation in 50 manuscript volumes, with the general title Yoi shinsho; however, this was apparently never published as a whole.

In the second and third decades of the 19th century, several portions of Yoi shinsho were published. The first section was Otsuki Genkan’s work on bandaging, Geka shuko, published in 1813-14. Genkan was Gentaku’s son and fellow translator. This was followed by Shiraku-hen in 1822-25. The present work, Yōjutsu chishin, appeared in 1824. Other portions of the Yoi shinsho were intended to be published but never appeared in print. No complete edition of Sugita’s translation has ever been published.

This text deals with diseases of the bladder, anus, and rectum. The fine woodcuts, with gray tints, depict surgical instruments, bandages, and procedures.

Nice set. Unimportant worming in Vol. I.