Cholera Epidemic in the Choshu domain, 1858

安政５年長州藩におけるコレラ流行

Cholera Epidemic in the Choshu domain, 1858

In spite of vaccination on a large scale, COVID-19 has continued spreading all over the world. In the history of Japan many epidemics such as Smallpox and Tuberculosis have broken out and taken many people's lives. In this study, I research on the epidemic outbreak of Cholera which was raging throughout the Choshu domain in 1858. It happened after Japan was forced to open the country to the Western countries, and Cholera spread almost all over Japan from the crew of an American ship in Nagasaki port who was infected in China. The Cholera epidemic was one of the reasons for the expulsion of foreigners from Japan.
It was an age when neither vaccines.treatments.nor even original pathogens were known. How did the statesmen and people in the Choshu domain confront this terrible and unknown infectious disease? What did they leave as lessons for the future? In this study, I inquire into the following historical sources : One is the Ura Dairy written by Yukie Ura, an upper samurai.the Lord of Atsuki (a part of now Yanai) and one of the top political leaders of the Choshu domain. The other is the Furuya Douan Nichijou (Dairy) written by a doctor and educator living in a small village north of Shimonoseki at that time. The descriptions of the Cholera epidemic in the end of the Edo era give us useful hints about dealing with the challenges we face in our Reiwa period.

Creators DOI Hiroshi