著者

橋本,萬平

出版者

日本計量史学会

雑誌

計量史研究

巻号頁・発行日

vol.21, no.1, 1999-12-31

---

As a continuation to the part I (this Bulletin, 20-1,1998,p.1), this paper analyses three Japanese literatures on weights and measures appeared in the late Yedo era. The first is the manuscript under the title of Seiyo Doryoko (Western Weights and Measures) composed and complemented by Yoan Udagawa (1798-1846), a Japanese scholar of Dutch learning who introduced Western chemistry effectively into Japan. The manuscript listed up the numeral and monetary terms as well as the units of length, weight, volume and time of Western origin and indicated their Japanese equivalents. The second is the prefatorial note to a pharmaceutical book, Ensej Iho Mojbutu Ko (1822-1825), compiled by Shinsai Udasawa, Yoan's father. This note contained a brief description of Western weights and measures by Yoan himself, which is now esteemed as the first printed literature in Japan on European metrological units. The third is a supplement (1834) to the above-mentioned pharmaceutical book. The supplement, referring to European units more substantially than the note by Yoan, was edited by Koan Ogata (1810-1863), who learnt Western medicine from Shinsai Udagawa and later became the prominent leader of modern medicine in Japan.