Background
Ryokai Shiba was born on January 2, 1840 in Niigata, Japan. His childhood name was Inokichi and his pseudonym Sonken. His first family name was Shimakura but he later assumed the name of Ryokai Shiba.
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Ryokai Shiba
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also known as
Inokichi, Sonken
Education
He was known as a prodigy. He went to Edo and studied medicine under Ryoho Matsumoto and Taizen Sato.
Career
Ryokai Shiba accompanied Ryojun Matsumoto to Nagasaki and studied under Pompe van Meerdervoort, a Dutch physician. He was appointed third-class instructor at the government's medical school and subsequently served in the Education Ministry and became a secretary of the Senate.
Ryokai Shiba was appointed a physician at the Aichi Prefectural Hospital and concurrently medical instructor (1876) and later practiced in Nagoya. Shimpei Goto, noted statesman, was once his disciple. He wrote books on medicine, German language dictionaries, essays and even poetry.
He died of consumption.
Achievements
Personality
An energetic man of unrestrained character, he was well known for his peculiarities and anecdotes. He spoke Dutch, English, French, Chinese and German fluently and knew Russian, Latin and Greek and was called a linguistic genius.
Connections
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Born
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Died
March 11, 1879 (aged 39) -
Nationality
Japanese -
Ethnicity