View source for Smallpox


Smallpox outbreaks killed many over the course of Japan's premodern history, with numerous notable historical outbreaks and a number of very prominent figures such as Shogun [[Tokugawa Tsunayoshi]] (d. [[1709]]) and [[Emperor Komei|Emperor Kômei]] (d. [[1867]]) dying of the disease. Though one type of smallpox vaccine was developed in the [[Ming Dynasty|Ming Empire]] in the 16th century and implemented in Japan,<ref>Lloyd Eastman, ''Family, Fields, and Ancestors: Constancy and Change in China's Social and Economic History, 1550-1949'', Oxford University Press (1988), 5-6.</ref> instances of the disease declined dramatically after a modern form of the vaccine, developed by [[Edward Jenner]] in England in the late 1790s, was introduced to Japan in [[1849]] and implemented widely in the early 1850s.

Other notable historical figures who may have died of smallpox include [[Fujiwara no Fusasaki]], [[Fujiwara no Maro]], [[Fujiwara no Muchimaro]], and [[Fujiwara no Umakai]] (all four, d. [[737]]); [[Hojo Ujinao|Hôjô Ujinao]] (d. [[1591]]); and the [[Shunzhi Emperor]] ([[Qing Dynasty]], d. [[1661]]).

==Early History==
A particularly significant smallpox epidemic broke out in the late 730s, killing roughly one-third the population of the Japanese islands in a two-year period.<ref>Delmer M. Brown, John Whitney Hall, et al (eds.), ''The Cambridge History of Japan'', vol 1 (1988), 250-251.</ref>

==Vaccine==
The smallpox vaccine developed by Edward Jenner in Gloucestershire, England, was in fact the first modern vaccine to be developed, in concert with the idea that exposure to a milder or different form of a pathogen can help the human body to develop immunity to a more serious form of a disease. In [[1796]], Jenner famously exposed a young boy to pus from a milkmaid infected with cowpox, and then later exposed him to scabs taken from a smallpox patient; the boy did not develop smallpox.<ref>"[https://kotobank.jp/word/%E3%82%B8%E3%82%A7%E3%83%B3%E3%83%8A%E3%83%BC-72209#E3.83.87.E3.82.B8.E3.82.BF.E3.83.AB.E5.A4.A7.E8.BE.9E.E6.B3.89 Jenner]," Britannica kokusai daihyakka jiten, Britannica Japan, 2014.</ref> From this beginning, a means was developed for effectively immunizing people in a widespread manner. Such methods were introduced into Japan in 1849 via the [[VOC|Dutch]] at [[Nagasaki]], and were quickly implemented; [[Sato Taizen|Satô Taizen]], head of the [[Juntendo|Juntendô]] medical school in [[Sakura han]] began employing this method that same year,<ref>Pamphlet available at Juntendô Memorial Buildings Museum.</ref> [[Saga han]] court physician [[Narabayashi Soken|Narabayashi Sôken]] implemented widespread immunization in Saga in [[1850]],<ref>Ishin Shiryô Kôyô 維新史料綱要, vol 1 (1937), 213.</ref> and the [[Ryukyu Kingdom|Ryûkyû Kingdom]] ordered immunizations to be performed across the various [[Ryukyu Islands|Ryûkyû Islands]] in [[1851]].<ref>Ishin hiryô Kôyô, vol. 1, 320.</ref>

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==References==
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