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YOSHIHIRO, Mihara (1782-1864). Sanka tangan zuketsu [Illustrated treatise on the Obstetrical Use of Traction Handles]. Tenpo 8, 1837.
3 volumes, comprising: 2 volumes text and atlas, accordion form (253 x 174 mm). 33 double-page wood-engravings in the atlas, of which four represent instruments, by Shiowaka Unshorin. Plain board covers, printed paper title labels (some light rubbing); later blue cloth folding case with bone hasps. Provenance: Jean Blondelet (sold Tajan, Paris, 23 October 2001, lot 27).
A VERY RARE EARLY EDITION, possibly the first. The preface is signed by Mihara [Yoshi]hiro and dated Tenpo 5 (1834), with a postscript dated Tenpo 8 (1837). The author, originally from the province of Omi, came to Kyoto at the age of twenty to learn obstetrics from Okushoshai and knowledge of Dutch science from Inamura Sanpaku, a pioneering Japanese scholar of the Dutch language. After twenty years of clinical experience he developed a set of instruments consisting of handles and forceps made of whalebone. These resemble metal instruments developed in Europe by Smellie, Pian and others, and it would be difficult to claim that their design originated in Japan independently, considering that instruments of this type would have been illustrated in Western medical books which Yoshihiro might have seen. However, their construction out of whalebone was probably a Japanese development since the use of whalebone for obstetrical instruments in Europe was mainly limited to whalebone loops, or fillets, designed to assist delivery of the head during childbirth. These were part of the Western obstetrician's armamentarium from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries. The 33 double-page woodcuts in this book, of which 4 represent instruments, are in great contrast to those in Western obstetrical treatises of the period. They are by Shiokawa Unshorin, a painter of the Shijo school in Kyoto who studied under Okamoto Toyohiko (1773-1845). Hibbard, The Obstetrician's Armamentarium (2000) pp. 202-205; Kirkup, Evolution of Surgical Instruments (2005) p. 82.
3 volumes, comprising: 2 volumes text and atlas, accordion form (253 x 174 mm). 33 double-page wood-engravings in the atlas, of which four represent instruments, by Shiowaka Unshorin. Plain board covers, printed paper title labels (some light rubbing); later blue cloth folding case with bone hasps. Provenance: Jean Blondelet (sold Tajan, Paris, 23 October 2001, lot 27).
A VERY RARE EARLY EDITION, possibly the first. The preface is signed by Mihara [Yoshi]hiro and dated Tenpo 5 (1834), with a postscript dated Tenpo 8 (1837). The author, originally from the province of Omi, came to Kyoto at the age of twenty to learn obstetrics from Okushoshai and knowledge of Dutch science from Inamura Sanpaku, a pioneering Japanese scholar of the Dutch language. After twenty years of clinical experience he developed a set of instruments consisting of handles and forceps made of whalebone. These resemble metal instruments developed in Europe by Smellie, Pian and others, and it would be difficult to claim that their design originated in Japan independently, considering that instruments of this type would have been illustrated in Western medical books which Yoshihiro might have seen. However, their construction out of whalebone was probably a Japanese development since the use of whalebone for obstetrical instruments in Europe was mainly limited to whalebone loops, or fillets, designed to assist delivery of the head during childbirth. These were part of the Western obstetrician's armamentarium from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries. The 33 double-page woodcuts in this book, of which 4 represent instruments, are in great contrast to those in Western obstetrical treatises of the period. They are by Shiokawa Unshorin, a painter of the Shijo school in Kyoto who studied under Okamoto Toyohiko (1773-1845). Hibbard, The Obstetrician's Armamentarium (2000) pp. 202-205; Kirkup, Evolution of Surgical Instruments (2005) p. 82.