2012 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Study on the History of Medicine and Industrial Art related to the Manufacturing of Human Phantoms in Japan

Research Project

Project/Area Number	23701007
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Research Field	Sociology/History of science and technology
Research Institution	Tohoku Gakuin University
Principal Investigator	KATO Koji 東北学院大学, 文学部, 准教授 (30551775)
Project Period (FY)	2011 – 2012
Keywords	医学教材 / 工芸技術 / 経穴銅人形 / 飯村玄斎 / 漢方医学 / 和歌山藩 / 国際情報交換 / ドイツ在外日本資料
Research Abstract	A copper doll is a human phantom showing points and meridians (paths of body energy flow) used in acupuncture and moxibustion. The most famous copper doll manufactured in Japan are preserved by the Tokyo National Museum. The most remarkable feature common to the copper doll designated as a Japanese national treasure is that there is a description that they were designed by Gensai Iimura. Copper dolls are often used as an indicator to show the high standard of medical expertise in Japan in the modern age. There are two missing perspectives in this conventional approach. One is a perspective on the circumstances and political meaning behind individual copper dolls. The other is the perspective from the industrial art history.