Background
Uemura Masakatsu was born in 1695 in the city of Matsusaka (present-day Mie Prefecture), Japan.
- Photos
- Works
- Photos
- Works
Masakatsu Uemura
Edit Profile正勝 植村
also known as
Saheiji
Botanist herbalist Pharmacologist
Career
Masakatsu Uemura managed the medicinal garden at Wakayama when Tokugawa Yoshimune was daimyô there. In 1716, when Yoshimune became shogun, Uemura accompanied him to Edo (now Tokyo), planting a larger pharmacological garden in Edo's Komaba neighborhood in 1720. In the same year he was commissioned by the Shogunate to tour the mountains and rivers throughout the country to collect specimens and data on herbs (1720-1740).
Settling down Masakatsu Uemura wrote an account of his tour in a mammoth book in nine volumes titled Shoshu saiyaku-ki ("Report on Herb Collecting Throughout the Provinces"), which he dedicated to Shogun Yosh imune Tokugawa. Masakatsu was then, in 1755, ordered by Shogun Tokugawa Ieshige (Yoshimune's son and successor) to write on unusual sights he encountered in his journeys. He thus produced a text entitled Honcho kiseki dan ("Strange Things of This Realm"), focusing in part on interesting regional customs.
Career
-
1716 - 1720