Takano Choei
Takano Chôei was an Edo period scholar of Western learning. He studied Western medicine under the German doctor Philipp Franz von Siebold, and was interested in politics and economics as well.
In 1839, Chôei was rounded up with many other rangaku scholars and sentenced to life in prison. While in prison he wrote a treatise on Western learning in Japan called Bansha Sôyaku Shôki (A Short Record of a Meeting with Misfortune). The book examines the history of Western knowledge entering Japan from the Sengoku Period to the 1830's. He eventually escaped prison, and hid out for a time in Uwajima han, and then in the Aoyama neighborhood of Edo, but when he was found again by shogunate officials, he committed suicide rather than be captured again.
References
- Kosaka, Masaaki. (David Abosch, Trans.) Japanese Thought in the Meiji Era, Pan-Pacific Press, Tokyo, 1958