パペットホームズ、大河ドラマなどの好きなテレビ番組やラグビーについて書いています。アフィリエイトはやっていません。／Welcome to my blog. I write about some Japanese TV programmes including NHK puppetry and Taiga Drama, Sherlock Holmes and rugby. I don't do affiliate marketing.
As it is a 90 minute drama, I post the first half today.
In November 1792, SUGITA Genpaku celebrates his kanreki (sixtieth birthday, it is an auspicious event) and his pupils and friends plan to have a party for him. But he doesn't greet them and shuts himself in a western style room in his house and drinks tea using western tea set. He waits for a certain person.
Sugita Genpaku (Shin-ya Niiro) shuts himself in the room and waits for someone
Around 1770, MAENO Ryōtaku who serves Nakatsu Domain as doctor (ranpo-i*) returns to Edo after studying in Nagasaki. Other than the souvenirs for his family, he buys important things there. They are a Dutch-French dictionary and "Ontleedkundige Tafelen". He finds that the illustration of the viscera in the book is much different from that in other medical books. SUGITA Genpaku, who is also a ranpō-i and got the same one in Edo. He asks Ryōtaku to see the dissection of an executed criminal at Kotsugahara execution grounds. NAKAGAWA Jun-an, another ranpō-i who is from the same province as Genpaku join them and they find that the description in "Ontleedkundige Tafelen" is right.
Genpaku (right) asks Maeno Ryōtaku (Kataoka Ainosuke) to see the dissection
They plan to translate it into Japanse though they have little knowledge of Dutch. Genpaku visits HIRAGA Gennai, one of his friends who is famous for his versatility with Jun-an. On their way, they see a strange man who throws himself on the ground. He is called TAKAYAMA Hikokuro who has a radical philosophy of revering the Emperor. Then they meet Gennai who is eccentric and has a good brain but doesn't seems to know Dutch well. They finally begin translating it using the dictionary, a wordbook by AOKI Kon-yō (**), the notebook of Ryōtaku and the pictures in "Ontleedkundige Tafelen". They gather at Ryōtaku's house every four days and mark the words that they don't understand what they mean.
After that, KATSURAGAWA Hoshū, son of KATSURAGA Hosan, a ranpō-i who serves shogun join them. He shows interest in the picture of a naked woman in Ontleedkundige Tafelen, but on the other hand he gives helpful hints for his comrades. They always translate the book by trial and error and share the joy when they understand what a word means. The following early spring, Fujiko, eldest daughter of Ryōtaku dies of an acute fever but he keeps translating. Though his wife Tamako asks him to be with her, he says that he can save who is alive but cannot do anything for dead people. But he stands up suddenly and performs hitoyogiri, a kind of recorder for her.
Genpaku, Jun-an, Katsuragawa Hoshū (Takaya Sakoda, third from the left) and Ryōtaku continue translating
They start making a manuscript of the Japanese version. Their translation advance steadily. One day, Genpaku and Jun-an happen to see Gennai. He is on the way to Chichibu to instruct local people about mine development. And he tells them that he can mediate between them and TANUMA Okitsugu, a rojū (***) if they hope to publish the book because the publishment of a book on the Western world is prohibited then. However KUDO Heisuke, one of the friends of Genpaku who is also a doctor and serves Sendai Domain plan to make known the threat of the Russian Empire. Genpaku is afraid that it will arouse some stubborn politicians more than "Ontleedkundige Tafelen".
Genpaku and Jun-an see Gennai who is on the way to Chichibu
(*) The doctors who studied western medicine and treats their patients with it under Tokugawa shogunate. It needed to learn Dutch to master it. (**) He was a scholar in the 18th century and encouraged the cultivation of sweet potato in Japan. (***) One of the highest ranking posts under the Tokugawa Shogunate and actual chief executive administrator.
The images are form the video of "Fūunjitachi Rangaku Reboruishi Hen".
