Kanehiro Takaki : The Great Naval Surgeon Nicknamed the “Barley Baron”

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  • 明治を駆けた麦飯男爵

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Abstract

Kanehiro Takaki (1849~1920) was born in Hyuga Province (Miyazaki Prefecture) . He joined the Imperial Japanese Navy as a medical officer in 1872. From 1875 to 1880, he studied at St Thomas'Hospital Medical School in London, UK. As soon as he returned to Japan, he and his colleagues founded the Seikai Medical School, now the Jikei University School of Medicine, and a training school for nursing, the first school of nursing in Japan. At this time, the disease beriberi was endemic in the Japanese armed forces, and Takaki proved that poor diet was the prime factor in beriberi. The disease was soon eliminated from the Imperial Japanese Navy by improving the quality of meals, comprising a mixture of foods including barley rather than white rice. Although he clearly showed that the incidence of the disease was due to nutritional issues, in particular thiamine deficiency, this conflicted with the prevailing idea among medical scientists that beriberi was an infectious disease. In 1905, Takaki was ennobled with the title of baron for his contribution to the elimination of beriberi from the Imperial Japanese Navy, and was later affectionately nicknamed the “Barley Baron”. He was a true man of the Meiji Era (1868~1912) and was multifaceted, being at once a doctor, soldier, teacher and statesman.

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