Erwin Bälz
Erwin Bälz | |
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Meiji Japan |
Erwin Otto Eduard von Bälz (German pronunciation:
Biography
The son of a contractor, Bälz was born in 1849 in
While at Leipzig, he treated a Japanese
During his stay in Japan, he tried to promote sports activity among the students of the Tokyo University, recommending unsuccessfully to revive the practice of jujutsu and kenjutsu. He trained personally kenjutsu under Kenkichi Sakakibara, and later was introduced to jujutsu master Hikosuke Totsuka, although he was discouraged from practicing jujutsu for being deemed at 30 supposedly too old to start in the art.[1]
In the summer of 1899, Bälz visited the Korean capital Seoul and Busan and undertook ethnological investigations. From 22 April to 3 July 1903, he was again in Korea and, together with Richard Wunsch, undertook an expedition into the interior of the country.
In 1902, he was appointed personal physician-in-waiting to Emperor Meiji and the Imperial household of Japan.
Bälz taught more than 800 students in Western medicine during his tenure at the Tokyo Imperial University. During his stay in Japan, he treated some of the most influential men in the
Another medical contribution was the discovery and naming of "Mongolian spot". Finding an unrecorded feature of blue spots in Japanese babies, he thought these spots were characteristic of people of Mongolian origin.[2][3][4]
In 1905, Bälz returned to Germany with his family.[5] In Stuttgart, late in the summer of 1913, Bälz succumbed to heart disease.
Legacy
Bälz was also an ardent art collector; the majority of the Japanese works collected by him are located at the Linden Museum in Stuttgart. A stone sculpture at his alma mater, University of Tübingen is a reminder of his contributions to Japanese medical science. In 1961, a sister city relationship between Kusatsu and Bietigheim-Bissingen was established.
After his death, his diary Das Leben eines deutschen Arztes im erwachenden Japan (1931, tr. The Diary of a German Doctor in Awakening Japan) was published, giving unique insights into Japan in the Meiji era.
In 1883, while staying at the
During his time in Japan, Bälz became a fan of judo, and is credited with introducing the sport to Germany.
In the year 2000, a commemorative museum honoring Bälz was erected in Kusatsu.[6]
References
- ^ Ellis Amdur, Old School - Essays on Japanese Martial Traditions, 2014, Freelance Academy Press, ISBN 9781937439255
- ^ Baelz, E. Die koerperlichen Eigenschaften der Japaner. (1885) Mittheil.d.deutschen Gesell. f. Natur- und Völkerkunde Ostasiens. Bd. 4, H. 32
- ^ Circumscribed dermal melanocytosis (Mongolian spot),(1981) Kikuchi I. Inoue S. in "Biology and Diseases of Dermatal Pigmentation", University of Tokyo Press
- ISBN 9781316872208.
- ^ Erinnerungen der Familie Bälz European Karate
- ^ Guide to Kusatsu
Bibliography
- Baelz, Erwin. Awakening Japan: The Diary of a German Doctor. Indiana University Press (1974). Translated by ISBN 0-253-31090-3.
- Fujitani, T. Splendid Monarchy: Power and Pageantry in Modern Japan. University of California Press; Reprint edition (1998). ISBN 0-520-21371-8.
- Keene, Donald. Emperor Of Japan: Meiji And His World, 1852–1912. Columbia University Press (2005). ISBN 0-231-12341-8.
- Hasegawa, Akio. Hakone that Prof. Bälz loved