In the collection “Materials related to Akashi Hiroakira donated by Mr. Akashi Hiro’omi, ” in the Kyoto Institute, Library and Archives, there is a hanging scroll of the “Portrait of Hippocrates” (Frontispiece 1) for which the Dutch scholar Udagawa Yōan (1798-1846) wrote a Dutch inscription. It is based on the copperplate illustration of Historische kronyck (Leiden 1698) by Johann Ludwig Gottfried (1584-1633), and is similar to the copperplate portrait of Hippocrates held by Waseda University Library, which was introduced in Ogata Tomio’s The Praise of Hippocrates in Japan (1971). However, in the case of this work, the painting is by ink on paper, and Udagawa’s inscription is written in pen. Akashi Hiroakira (1839-1910), the former owner of the scroll, was a bureaucrat in Kyoto Prefecture for about 10 years from 1870, devoting himself to scientific and technological education and the development of the medical system. This article discusses the “Portrait of Hippocrates” owned by Akashi. A description of the work (hereafter, “Akashi version”) is given here:

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In this paper, we first overview the formation and history of the “Honzō Dōshokubutsu Zufu 本草動植物図譜” (Honzō Natural History Album of Animals and Plants) and “Keizan Shasei 渓山写生” (Keizan’s Sketches from Life) by Kyoto Confucianist and Honzō naturalist Yamamoto Ayao 山本 章夫 (1827-1903, pseudonym Keigu, later Keizan), from Yamamoto Dokushoshitsu Collection, deposited at the Kyoto Institute, Library and Archives. Next, we present a catalogue (Table 1) of 363 sheets of the fish shasei-zu 写生図 (sketches from life) contained in both texts. We identify the species of fish found here, giving particular attention to species thought to have been collected in Mie Prefecture and compare them with the current fish fauna of Mie Prefecture, examining the dialectical fish names recorded in the fish shasei-zu.

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This research note analyzes an Ainu hunting colored picture by Matsuura Takeshirō (1818-1888), a well-known explorer of Ezo (Hokkaido), newly discovered by Professor Matsuda Kiyoshi among uncatalogued materials in the Yamamoto Dokushoshitsu (読書室) collection. The painting is a hansetsu (height 140.5 cm, width 31.6 cm) of gasen paper, owned by Yamamoto Ayao. On the reverse, the author’s name “松浦武四郎” (Matsuura Takeshirō) is written in ink, seemingly in the handwriting of Ayao. The san inscription is a waka poem, “Namimakura ukitomo shirazu ukineshite yowataru michizo kokoro yasukere” (Sleeping with your head on the waves, free from worldly worries, is the way to spend life, with a peaceful heart), written in ink by Takeshirō on the upper part of the piece. The rakukan inscription is “多気志絵” (Takishi e, drawn by Takeshi, Taki county). The rakukan-in seal reads “古春” (Koshun, old spring), a previously- unseen mark. The year of production is not given. The painting was probably a gift to Ayao or his father, Yamamoto Bōyō, teacher of Kakeshirō in Chinese classics and natural history.

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A physician by training, Akashi Hiroakira (1839-1910, pseudonym Seiran) was a pioneer of Kyoto modernization. While working as a bureaucrat in Kyoto Prefecture in the early Meiji period, he spearheaded the establishment of the Kyoto Seimikyoku 舎密局 (Kyoto Chemical Bureau) and the Kyoto Ryōbyō-in 療病院 (Kyoto Hospital). The first published biography of Akashi was A Short Biography of Seiran Ō Akashi Hiroakira 静瀾翁明石 博高略伝 (1916, private edition) written by his son, Akashi Atsuaki. Later, Atsuaki provided a series of Wagener’s chemical lectures at the Seimikyoku, which had been compiled by his father Hiroakira, for use in the Biography of Dr. Gottfried Wagener, edited by Ueda Toyokitsu (Hakurankai Shuppan Kyōkai, 1925).

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Here we present the text of Yūhisai Zōsho Mokuroku, a handwritten catalogue of the books and manuscripts belonging to the Yūhisai, pen name of the Confucian philologue Minagawa Ki’en (1735-1807). This catalogue was discovered in June 2022 within a collection of documents related to Minagawa Ki’en that had been inherited by a branch family of the Minagawa and donated by Mr. Minagawa Bunkō to the Yūhisai Kōdōkan Foundation.

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