Background
Gemboku Ito was born in 1800 in Kanzaki in the province of Hizen in Kyushu, earlier named En.
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Gemboku Ito
Edit ProfileEducation
Determined to become a physician, Gemboku Ito went to the city of Saga and studied Western learning under Shimamoto Ryojun, also known as Ryosho. From there he proceeded to Nagasaki, studying the Dutch language under Inomata Denjiemon and medicine under von Siebold, a German doctor attached to the Dutch trading office.
Career
In 1826 Gemboku Ito made a brief trip to Edo, returning almost immediately, but went again to Edo and in 1833 began practice as a physician, calling his residence the Shosendo and offering training in medical matters to younger men. In 1828, when von Siebold was found to have in his possession a map and other forbidden articles and was arrested by the authorities, many of his former students were implicated in the affair, but Ito managed to avoid entanglement and in the following year adopted the name Gemboku, by which he is commonly known. In 1841 he became a physician of the domain of Saga.
Achievements
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In 1845, when the lord of the domain, Nabeshima Kanso, had some smallpox vaccine imported from Holland, Gemboku successfully vaccinated Kanso’s daughter and thereafter performed vaccinations on the populace in general. In 1857 Gemboku Ito set up a vaccination center in the Kanda district of Edo, which later became the Center for Western Medicine and eventually the medical department of Tokyo University. The following year he was appointed physician to the shogunate.
