View source for Uemura Masakatsu (1695-1777)

*''Born: [[1695]]''
*''Died: [[1777]]''
*''Japanese'': [[上村]]政勝 ''(Uemura Masakatsu)''

Uemura Masakatsu was a botanist & pharmacologist in the service of the [[Tokugawa shogunate]], and an extensive traveler and writer.

Uemura managed the medicinal garden at [[Wakayama castle|Wakayama]] when Tokugawa Yoshimune was ''daimyô'' there. In [[1716]], when Yoshimune became shogun, Uemura accompanied him to [[Edo]], planting a larger pharmacological garden in Edo's Komaba neighborhood in [[1720]]. He left that same year on a journey to explore the plants and medicines of the country, a journey which in the end lasted 34 years. 

In [[1740]], he compiled a nine-volume account of his travels entitled ''Shoshu saiyaku-ki'', which he submitted to Yoshimune. Masakatsu was then, in [[1755]], ordered by Shogun [[Tokugawa Ieshige]] (Yoshimune's son and successor) to write on unusual sights he encountered in his journeys. He thus produced a text entitled ''Honchô kiseki dan'' ("Strange Things of This Realm"), focusing in part on interesting regional customs.

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==References==
*Plutschow, Herbert. ''A Reader in Edo Period Travel''. Kent: Global Oriental, 2006. pp14-15.

[[Category:Edo Period]]
[[Category:Scholars and Philosophers]]
[[Category:Samurai]]