The College of Physicians of Philadelphia Digital Library

Japanese scroll illustrating the dissection of an executed criminal

About This Item

Title

Japanese scroll illustrating the dissection of an executed criminal

Subject

Anatomy
Capital punishment
Human dissection
Medicine--Edo period, 1600-1868

Description

This 1900 cm long hand drawn scroll from the Edo Period is an important record of the most famous of all early human dissections to take place in Japan. These dissections materially changed the Japanese knowledge of human anatomy. It is one of several scrolls that were prepared following the dissection of Heijiro, a convicted criminal, at age 40. The dissection occurred in 1783 at Fushimi, south of Kyoto.

Creator

Yoshimura, Ranshu, 1739-1816

Publisher

Digitized by the rights holder

Date

circa 1783

Contributor

Koishi, Genshun,‏ ‎1743-1808‏
Tachibana, Nankei, 1754-1806

Language

Japanese

Type

Handscrolls

Identifier

japanese_scroll

Extent

1 scroll

Provenance

Jonathan A. Hill, Bookseller, Inc., New York, NY

Temporal Coverage

Edo period, Japan, 1600-1868

Spatial Coverage

Fushimi-ku (Kyoto, Japan)

Rights Holder

Anonymous. Name available upon request.

Citation

Yoshimura, Ranshu, 1739-1816, “Japanese scroll illustrating the dissection of an executed criminal,” The College of Physicians of Philadelphia Digital Library, accessed November 21, 2024, https://cppdigitallibrary.org/items/show/8129.