— Special Article— Equine Science Pioneers in Japan

Abstract

According to ancient documents, the relationship between man and the horse in Japan has a history of over 2, 000 years but it was not until the latter part of the 19th century that fullscale scientific research connected with horses got underway when veterinary science was introduced based on the modern scientific system from Europe. At that time, in our country, as the national policy was the improvement of horses through introduction of foreign breeds, and, in the field of related studies, the studies connected with the horse were the mainstream which achieved rapid progress in a period of a mere half a century. At the cessation of hostilities in 1945, in our country which had become a vanquished nation, dominant was the thought that it was a vice to be connected with equine science, other than the racehorse, which led to an utter disregard of subjects connected with horses up to the present day.
In looking back over the accumulatiom of achievements of the pioneers connected with equine science up to the end of the war, the achievements ranged over all fields including breeding, reproduction, infectious disease control and management but it is noteworthy that in those days the basic attitude of the pioneers toward the horse as a human being were quite apparent everywhere. Of these many achievements, even in an age of universal conscription, the 3 principal achievements were the [BAJI-TEIYO, or, “The Equine Management”] which even today can be called a masterpiece, [the studies on the exercise physiology and the performance-test of the racehorse by Drs. Shimamura and Matsuba which in those days attracted world-wide attention within the international academic society and the [rearing and training of racehorses in the Shimohsa Imperial Farm] published by the Shimohsa Imperial Farm from which, along with the Koiwai Farm, appeared many Japanese Derby winners.
These books not only are based on basic matters in regards to people connected with the horse who will be able to stand on their own internationally beginning with mental attitude in coming into contact with the horse, that vicious habits are caused depending on how the horse is handled, that the person who is in charge of rearing and training must be a technician who is well versed in knowledge connected with the quality of each individual horse, from behavior extending to life style and diseases, and that the young person who is in actual charge of young horses should be healthy, gentle in character and serious-minded but also the descriptive science of these books are so scientific that even the specialized books today cannot attain this level. The idea of exercise-performance-test has been highly appraised internationally and these performance tests based on this idea have been adopted even today by many European countries.
The achievements of the pioneers in equine science in our country whose point of view have been none other than that the horse is a partner of all mankind, in ideology and whatever the research results, these invaluable achievements have endured the test of time and can stand on their own today. By assuming a modest attitude by looking back again over the achievements of the past, we should exert further efforts to develop toward the day that the equine science of our country can be discussed on an equal footing within the international society.