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• 1 media/Map2 Echizen.jpg 2019-11-18T17:16:24-05:00 Introduction of the Vaccine to Ōno Domain 31 image_header 4276 2020-08-12T01:48:30-04:00 Maren Ehlers

  The transmission to Ōno domain is a typical example of vaccine sharing between domains in Echizen province. Whereas in Fukui domain the initiative for importing the vaccine came from a town doctor, the lord of Ōno himself actively promoted Dutch Learning and used domain doctors to bring the treatment to his domain. In this case, the interests of physicians and their network fell completely in line with the designs of their domain lord. 
  
  The two leaders of Ōno's vaccination program, Tsuchida Ryūwan and Hayashi Unkei, were both domain physicians who directly served the lord. The lord had sent them to Osaka in 1845 to study with two prestigious scholars of Dutch medicine, Ogata Kōan and Kō Ryōsai. Unlike Fukui's ruler, Ōno's lord Doi Toshitada had a sustained interest in Dutch Learning. Whenever he was in Edo on tours of duty for the shogunate, he occasionally invited prominent scholars such as Sugita Seikei, Koseki San’ei, and Takami Senseki to his mansion for personal lectures. Toshitada also encouraged Dutch Learning among his vassals and personal physicians. Besides, he probably had a strong personal motive for bringing the smallpox vaccine to Ōno. In the spring of 1849, smallpox claimed the life of his infant son and heir, shortly before the vaccine reached Japan’s shores. Though neither Tsuchida Ryūwan nor Hayashi Unkei had studied with Kasahara Hakuō, their training in Osaka imbedded them in the same scholarly lineages as Kasahara Hakuō and Hakuō's teacher Hino Teisai.

  News of the vaccine's importation quickly reached Toshitada. In the 10th month of 1849, before the vaccine had even arrived in Fukui, he entrusted Tsuchida Ryūwan with some funds from his private purse to bring the vaccine to Ōno. Early in 1850, domain physician Hayashi Unkei as well as town doctor Nakamura Taisuke went to Fukui to formally ask Kasahara Hakuō for a transmission. Like all the other physicians who received transmissions from Hakuō, the two men had to sign the vaccinators’ oath. The extant copy of the oath shows both men’s signatures under the date of 2/14. 

  While in Fukui, Unkei and Taisuke vaccinated the “small child of a tobacco dealer” and brought the toddler back to Ōno. After seven days they transferred the lymph to three more children (Iwaji, p. 105; check other) and from there to another three and so on to build the foundation for a self-sustaining program. 
  
  In the following years, Ōno's vaccinators benefited from their participation in Hakuō's regional network of vaccinators in Echizen province and beyond. But they also maintained their connections to physicians of Dutch Learning in other places. According to Ogata Kōan's records, Ōno's physicians seem to have received a retransmission from Kōan's clinic in Osaka in 1851 [Osaka no jotōkan]. 
  
  To further explore vaccinations in Ōno domain, go to the pathways "The Territorial Approach to Vaccinations: Ōno Domain" or "Vaccinating the Nishikata Exclave."
  
  To explore how Kasahara Hakuō attempted to spread vaccinations to the countryside of Fukui domain, click here for the pathway "Chains of Bodies: Village Relais in Fukui Domain."
  
  Click here to go back and explore more "Vaccine Stories."