Rangaku and the Tekijuku — The Window onto the West Opened by the Dutch Language
Even in secluded Japan there was a small window onto Western knowledge. Using Dutch-language books that came in through the trading post at Dejima in Nagasaki, scholars studied Western learning — this was rangaku, "Dutch learning." Bakumatsu modernization was supported by this accumulated knowledge.
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Opening the West through Dutch
Rangaku was the general term for Western learning studied through the Dutch language. It spanned medicine, astronomy, geography, military science, and more, and medicine in particular drew early attention.
The well-known story of scholars, struck by a Western anatomy book that depicted the human body accurately, laboring to translate it captures the spirit of the work. Rendering knowledge whose words and concepts were utterly different into Japanese, one term at a time, demanded almost unimaginable patience.
Ogata Kōan and the Tekijuku
Indispensable to the rangaku of the Bakumatsu was the Tekijuku, a private school opened in Osaka by the physician Ogata Kōan.
The Tekijuku accepted students regardless of status and was known for a rigorous yet free academic spirit. Among those who studied there were Fukuzawa Yukichi and Ōmura Masujirō, men who would help shape Japan's future. A school of Dutch learning became a seedbed for the people who would drive the modern age.
A contribution to medicine
Ogata Kōan was both an educator and an outstanding physician. He worked to spread Western-derived smallpox vaccination, seeking to protect many lives from disease. The stance of putting learning to use in people's lives, rather than leaving it on the desk, ran through his work.
From rangaku to Western learning
As the opening of Japan advanced, the languages to be studied widened beyond Dutch to English, French, and others. Rangaku gradually transformed into the broader "Western learning" (yōgaku).
Even so, there is no doubt that the flame of rangaku, kept faintly burning through the age of seclusion, prepared the modernization of the Bakumatsu and Meiji from within.
The figures who studied Dutch learning can be traced in the articles of Bakumatsu Figures.
Related reading
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The Black Ships and the Opening of Japan — Four Vessels That Ended Two Centuries of Seclusion
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