Gennai Hiraga was a scientist, technician, and man of letters of the middle Edo period.
Background
Gennai Hiraga was born in 1728 in Japan. His personal name was Kunitomo, his common name Gennai, and he went by such literary names as FQraisanjin, Kyukei, and Fukuuchi Kigai, the last used in his role as a writer of joruri (puppet) drama. He was the son of a minor official of the domain of Takamatsu in Shikoku.
Education
In 1752 he went to Nagasaki, where he first became acquainted with Dutch learning, the science and technology of the West as it filtered into Japan through the Dutch merchants there.
In 1756 he went to Edo, where he took up the study of herbal medicine under Tamura Ransui, and the following year began Confucian studies under the members of the Hayashi family. In addition, in cooperation with Tamura Ransui he arranged an exhibition of useful animals, plants, and minerals at Yushima in Edo, repeating the exhibition three times. The study of the specimens for the exhibition provided him with the material that later went into an encyclopedia he completed in 1763 entitled Butsurui hinshitsu.
Career
His abilities were recognized by the lord of his native fief of Takamatsu, who. assigned him a stipend, but in 1761 he became a ronin, a masterless samurai, and continued to pursue his various interests.
He was forbidden by the lord of the domain from taking service with any other family, but in 1770 he for a time served the shogunate, which employed him to translate works from Dutch. It was the period when Tanuma Okitsugu held power in the shogunate, actively encouraging industry, foreign trade, and the opening of new lands for cultivation. In this atmosphere of experimentation, Hiraga Gennai turned his attention to the development of a variety of products.
He sought an outlet for his frustrations in the writing of fiction, producing works in the genre known as sharebon such as Nenashigusa (1763) and Hohi- ron (1774). These works satirized the follies of the times, particularly the scramble for profit, at the same time lamenting the fact that the nation as a whole took so little interest in the development of industry. He also wrote plays for the joruri, or puppet drama, beginning with a work performed in 1770 called Shinrei yaguchi no watashi, and in time became one of the out- standingjoran dramatists of Edo. In 1779 he was sent to prison for an offense and died there.
Personality
Gennai showed no talent for scientific theory but was highly apt in matters of practical technology.
For some years, he had also interested himself in Western styles of realistic painting. He thus displayed an interest and talent for many different kinds of activities.