My grandfather, Taichirō, was born in a rural village south of Kurakata on July 25, 1888, or the twenty-first year of Meiji, according to the Japanese calendar.[1] Ito Hirofumi, the Prime Minister at the time, ushered in an era of rapid change for Japan, during which the country moved from being an isolated feudalistic society to a modern industrialized nation state and emerging great power.

Unlike many of the physicians of his day, Taichirō did not come from a family of doctors himself; rather, he would be the first. His own father, however, had been the village chief and possessed 5~8 tan of land, or about one and a half acres.[2] Not much perhaps by American standards, but a lot for Japanese at the time. Peasants worked the farm for him.

Taichirō used to reminisce about his grandmother whose family stemmed from a large shōya, or village headman in the Edo Period, and married into the Fujita family.

When Taichirō was a young boy, he suffered from pleurisy, which is an inflammation of the thorax that causes a sharp pain when one inhales. His father took him to the village doctor for treatment and it was during this time that the doctor’s next-door neighbor, who had graduated from the prestigious Tōkyō Imperial University, started teaching Taichirō mathematics and English. Although the neighbor had originally intended to teach my grandfather as a sort of hobby, if you will, he was soon impressed with the boy’s intellect and potential and continued tutoring him for several years. When Taichirō graduated from Tōchiku Junior High,[3] the teacher suggested that my grandfather go to Tōkyō in order to further his studies and was even kind enough to write a letter of introduction to an acquaintance of his who was the vice principal at Gyōsei, an elite private Catholic school in the nation’s capital.[4] At the time a distant relative of my grandfather’s was running a large business in the metropolis and could help Taichirō if he were ever in trouble. And so, he left his hometown and traveled to the big city to further his studies.

In his final year at Gyōsei, Taichirō passed the entrance examination of Japan Medical School (Nihon Isen, 日本医専, or Nisen for short), one of, I believe, only two medical schools in Japan at the time.[5] While there, he managed to earn his medical license a year early, that is before having enough credits to graduate. I recall seeing his medical license once. It was printed on Japanese washi paper and had a large vermillion stamp from the Ministry of the Interior. The registration number was also much smaller than my sister’s and husband’s.

Now, that he was a licensed doctor, his professor at “Nisen” told him that he no longer needed to attend classes. A professor recommended Taichirō to enter the Department of Dermatology at the Tōkyō Imperial University, which had just been established and was at the cutting edge of medicine in those days.[6] But, in order to do so, Taichirō had to also pass a German proficiency exam. So, he began to study German at a night school—something that would serve him well in the future—and was eventually admitted at the age of 22 to the department. The year was Meiji 42 or 1909.

Taichirō’s step-mother used to send money from time to time to help him cover the cost of tuition, but due to the unreliability of those payments, he had to go out and earn money himself to make ends meet. One of the more interesting part-time jobs he had was working as an o-muko at kabuki performances. O-muko sit in the back of the audience and shout out actors’ names, or yagō, during important scenes, something I can clearly picture my grandfather doing. Apparently, his landlord who used to be a gidayu, or a dramatic narrator and samisen player in the theatre, introduced him to the job.[7]

Taichirō’s admittance to the Department of Dermatology at Tōkyō Imperial University was no small feat. I heard that another student who had graduated from Tōkyō University failed to pass the department’s exam. So deeply chagrined was he that a student from an inferior college, namely my grandfather, could best him, he took his own life.

Although much younger than the other doctors in the department, Taichirō claimed that he never felt inferior to them. In those days, smallpox was common and the novice doctor volunteered without hesitation, attending to a large number of patients around the Aoyama area of Tōkyō. The effort he put into treating these otherwise shunned patients earned him the respect of his superiors.

Taichirō worked for the university hospital for two years before moving to Mitsui Charity Hospital in Tōkyō (三井慈善病院). Due to his young age, he was prohibited from opening his own clinic, so he remained at the hospital and worked with Tōkyō University’s vice professor and lecturers until he was twenty-five.

I should note that thanks to my grandfather’s example, a number of his relatives would also go on to pursue careers in medicine, including two cousins who studied at Tōkyō Women’s Medical University.[8]

Four years later in the second year of Taishō or 1913, my grandfather returned to the Chikuhō Region of Fukuoka Prefecture and established his own clinic in Kurakata City.

[1] The Meiji Period (明治時代) lasted 44 years from 1868-1912 and was followed by the Taishō Period.

[2] 1 tan is equal to 300 tsubo, or 991.7 m².

[3] Tōchiku Junior and Senior High School is a highly ranked public secondary school located in Orio, Kita-Kyūshū City. It was originally founded in Iizuka in the late 1880s and moved to Orio in 1902.

[4] Gyōsei (暁星) is a private Catholic junior and senior high school located in Chiyoda, Tōkyō. Founded in 1888 by the Bishop of Tōkyō, it is today part of a family of highly competitive Catholic.

[5] Nihon Isen (日本医専) is known as Nihon Ika Daigaku (日本医科大学) today and still ranks as one of Japan’s top medical schools.

[6] Tōkyō Imperial University is called Tōkyō University today. Imperial Universities or teikoku daigaku (帝國大學) were founded in the Empire of Japan between 1886 and 1939, with seven in mainland Japan, and two abroad (Korea and Taiwan).

[7] Unique elements of kabuki theater include the mie (見得), in which the actor holds a pose which establishes his character. It is often at this point that his yagō (屋号), or house name, can be heard in loud shout, known as a kakegoe (掛け声) from an expert audience member. This serves to both express and enhance the audience’s appreciation of a kabuki actor’s ability.

[8] Tōkyō Joshi Ikadai (東京女子医科大) was established in Meiji 33 or 1900 by Yoshioka Yayoi (吉岡彌生, 1871-1959), a physician and women’s rights activist.