Background
Genzui Udagawa was born in the Tsuyama official residence in Edo (now Tokyo), Japan in 1755. From the time of his father, Udagawa Michinori, his family served as physicians in the fief of Tsuyama in Mimasaka.
宇田 宇田川
Genzui Udagawa was born in the Tsuyama official residence in Edo (now Tokyo), Japan in 1755. From the time of his father, Udagawa Michinori, his family served as physicians in the fief of Tsuyama in Mimasaka.
Apprised of the importance of Dutch learning by Katsuragawa Hoshu, the physician to the shogun, Genzui Udagawa made up his mind at twenty-four to learn Dutch.
Katsuragawa Hoshu had a high regard for his ability and urged him to translate a work on internal medicine by a Dutch medical expert named Johannes de Gorter. While continuing to pursue his studies of the Dutch language under Ishii Tsuneuemon, he began work on the translation, completing it ten years later. In eighteen chapters, it was entitled Seisetsu naika senyo and was published in 1793, the first work to introduce Dutch internal medicine to Japan. Genzui intended to revise and improve the translation, but he died before he could carry out the task; the work was taken over by his adopted son, Gen- shin (or Shinsai), who in 1822 brought out a revised and enlarged edition entitled Zohojutei naika senyo. In his late years he moved to the Kayaba section of Edo, where he died.