Genpaku Sugita was a Japanese scholar known for his translation of Kaitai Shinsho (New Book of Anatomy).
Background
His original given name was Tasuku and his literary name Isai, Gempaku being his common name. He was the son of Sugita Teishin, physician to the Obama domain (Obama City, Fukui Prefecture) and was born at the residence of the clan lord at Ushigome in Edo on 20 October 1733.
Career
IIn 1753 he was made clan physician at the age of twenty and in 1757 set up a practice in Nihonbashi-dori in Edo. Around this time he joined with other men such as Hiraga Gennai and Nakagawa Jun’an, also a physician to the Obama clan, in a society devoted to the study of herbs.
In 1769, when he was thirty-six, his father died and he was promoted to the rank of personal physician to the lord of the clan. He continued thereafter to devote himself to the practice of medicine, research, and writing; at the same time, he found time to teach at the Tenshinro Academy, turning out many outstanding pupils, men such as Otsuki Gentaku, and made lasting achievements in the development of Western studies.