ABSTRACT
As has been seen in the two previous chapters, the principal lines of Western learning – medical-botanical and astronomical-calendrical – developed with increasing rapidity towards the end of the eighteenth century, which was a period of great activity in the so-called Edo Rangaku. After the turn of the nineteenth century, both as a result of the spread of Rangaku, on the one hand, and of the recognition of its utility and the desire to control it closely, on the other hand, in 1811 the Bakufu established an official translation bureau, Banshowage-goyo. The early nineteenth century, then, was not only an era of a general expansion of Dutch studies but also of the appearance of outstanding individual scholars whose encyclopedic knowledge encompassed several fields. Thus, despite the comparatively small number of men involved in the Rangaku movement and the obvious limitations on their work, much information on medicine, pharmacology, physics, chemistry, astronomy, cartography, geography, military science and art was disseminated. Perhaps these trends can be better understood by an examination of the career of one of the greatest Rangakusha, Otsuki Gentaku, with special attention to his many writings, to his part in the creation of a government translation bureau and to his large coterie of disciples.
