Medical Exchanges: Mapping the Human Body in Japan and China

About the exhibit

Exhibit dates: December 12, 2016 to July 14, 2017

On view for the first time, the texts in this fascinating exhibition from the collections of the Wangensteen Historical Library of Biology and Medicine provide a unique and richly illustrated history of early modern medical knowledge and healing in Japan and China.

Connections between Western and Eastern medicine and the interchange of medical technologies are explored through works on acupuncture, anatomical knowledge, disease treatment, medicinals, and surgery. Culturally-specific perceptions of health and diseases are showcased in a series of rare 19th-century Japanese woodblock prints featuring popular culture references and anthropomorphic figures attacking contagious diseases.

Related news and events

Digitized collection: Pre-Modern East Asian History of Medicine texts

This digitized collection from the Wangensteen Historical Library contains illustrated books and scrolls about early modern (pre-1800) medical knowledge and healing in Japan and China. The collection includes books on acupuncture, anatomical knowledge, disease treatment, medicinals and surgery.

Digitized collection: Hashika-e, Measles Posters

The Hashika-e, Measles Posters are illustrated woodblock prints that serve as a pictorial guide to combat measles outbreak and disease. Visual account of Japanese medicine in the late Edo-Period (1603-1868).