Yamakawa Kenjiro and Japanese Curry Rice

Curry rice is probably one of the most popular items of modern Japanese cuisine. But it is hardly indigenous to Japan, and it has a history barely a 150 years long. So how did this get started? Who was the first Japanese person to eat something that's become such a staple?

That person would be Yamakawa Kenjiro (1854-1931, at left): physicist, teacher, and (in my opinion) all-around awesome guy. Born in Aizu to a high-ranking samurai family, he survived the Boshin War, where he saw the action firsthand, including the grisly death of at least one member of his family. This affected him deeply, and for the rest of his life he was active in the "Aizu diaspora," and also as an advisor to the domain's ex-daimyo family. It also spurred him to gather interviews and documents, so while he's known as a physicist, he is also an historian who wrote several major works, including the lengthy Aizu Boshin Senshi [A History of Aizu in the Boshin War].

His claim to fame is physics. He was the first Japanese person to earn a Ph.D. in the field, and also one of the first to attend Yale University, at the Sheffield School. He went on to become president of Tokyo University and Kyoto University, as well as one of the founders of Kyushu University. Those of you who know your Nobel laureates-- Yukawa Hideki, first Japanese Nobel laureate, was one of his students. Yamakawa was later ennobled, and served in the Privy Council. He died in 1931.

At any rate, how's the curry fit in? He was the first Japanese person to eat it, or so the story goes, during his time at Yale. The Japanese style curry rice we know today is a variant of the Royal Navy's curry rice, but that was still a few years in the future during Yamakawa's Connecticut days. Little did he know he was the first to partake in what would become so established, by our time!

Here is a recipe for Japanese-style curry rice. Enjoy, and think of that young student in Yale. How many of us, I wonder, are unknowing trendsetters?

Works Cited

• Beef Curry on Wikimedia Commons (accessed 2 May 2013)
• Curry recipe on Food.com (accessed 2 May 2013)
• Nakamura  Akihiko. Byakkotai. Tokyo: Bungei shunju, 2001.
• Yamakawa Kenjiro. Aizu Boshin Senshi. Tokyo: Tokyo Daigaku Shuppankai, 1933.

Biographical Spotlight: Ogata Koan

A step outside of Tohoku and on down to Osaka for this post. Our topic is Ogata Koan (1810-1863), a medical doctor of the late Edo period. This post is written with those of my readers in mind who practice traditional Chinese medicine, who would benefit from some observations on the life of a doctor in a "traditional" East Asian setting.

Ogata was a pioneering doctor in his time, adapting Western medical practices-- for example, in vaccination-- for use in Japan. But this was not all he did. His greatest and most enduring impact has been in the realm of education. He founded a school in Osaka, called Tekijuku, in 1838. The curriculum at Tekijuku covered far more than just medicine: foreign language (Dutch), military science, and engineering were also studied there. And Ogata's students came from all around Japan. Though he may not be remembered by name, his students are people who are household names in Japanese history: Fukuzawa Yukichi (founder of Keio University), Otori Keisuke (military officer and diplomat), Omura Masujiro (general, whose statue stands at Yasukuni Shrine), Takamatsu Ryoun (early Meiji era doctor), and many others.

(above: Tekijuku as it stands in Osaka today)

 Those of you who know manga, you're in for a bit of a surprise! You may have heard of Tezuka Osamu, the artist behind "Astroboy." His ancestor, Tezuka Ryoan, was also one of Ogata's students. Fukuzawa Yukichi's autobiography mentions him; there is an amusing anecdote of the two of them playing pranks on the people in houseboats on one of Osaka's rivers. Tezuka made a manga about his ancestor's life, titled Hidamari no Ki.

So, to sum up: what is there to be learned from Ogata's life? A doctor is more than a "body mechanic," a doctor is also an educator. Also, as one of my professors once said, "there's no such thing as wasted research." The breadth of Ogata's learning fed into his work as a physician and a teacher, and formed an important part of the education that empowered his students who went on to change Japan.

Works Cited and Further Reading

• Fukuzawa Yukichi. Autobiography of Yukichi Fukuzawa. Translated by Eiichi Kiyooka. New York: Columbia University Press, 1966.
• McClain, James L, ed. Osaka: The Merchants' Capital of Early Modern Japan. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1999.
• Nakata Masahiro. Ogata Koan: Bakumatsu no I to Oshie. Kyoto: Shibunkaku Shuppan, 2009.
• Tekijuku picture at Wikimedia Commons (accessed 25 Mar. 2013)
• Tezuka Osamu. Hidamari no Ki. (multiple vols.) Tokyo: Kodansha, 1994.
• Yoneda Kaisuke. Koan no Kusuribako. Suita: Osaka Daigaku Shuppankai, 2001.

Biographical Spotlight: Kudo Heisuke

There remains a popular view in Japanese history that (a) Japan was hermetically sealed during the Edo period (1603-1868) and (b) that Commodore Perry's arrival in 1853 took Japan completely by surprise, as if there were no other foreigners appearing in Japanese waters outside the approved foreign settlements at Nagasaki.

Both of these views have, by now, been soundly disproved. There are a number of scholars whose work shows that (a) Japan in the Edo period was not isolated but was highly selective in foreign contacts, and (b) that Japanese politicians and scholars were aware of foreign news and developments. These scholars include Reinier Hesselink, Donald Keene, and Martha Chaiklin, to name a few.

Today I would like to write about one such figure, Kudō Heisuke. The "take-away" with Kudo is that he was the first to voice concerns about the Russian imperial expansion southward from Siberia, and that he was a part of a group of scholars in that era who were informed on foreign affairs and were voicing calls for military reform and national defense.

More below the jump.

On Furnaces, Bread, and Cannons: Egawa Tarozaemon (1801-1855)

Good morning, everyone! Today I would like to talk to you for a little while about an early Japanese industrialist. This goes beyond my usual Tōhoku focus, but it still involves rural Japan, history, and lesser-known figures and facts.

It's often assumed that the Meiji period (1868-1912) is when Japan made the spectacular jump from feudal backwater to industrialized, modern nation. However, what seems to be a sudden change came about, in part, because of processes that were already at work before 1868. This is where our topic for today, Egawa Hidetatsu, comes in. (at left: A self-portrait by Egawa)

Three big points I'd like you to remember about Egawa.

1. His very old family roots and classical education.
2. Despite those roots, his interest in and advocacy for technological and institutional innovation.
3. His role as teacher to some of the major innovators of the 1860s.

More on Egawa after the jump.