Mitsukuri Genpo

• Other Names: 虔孺 (Kenju)
• Japanese: 箕作阮甫 (Mitsukuri Genpo)

Mitsukuri Genpo was a court physician in service to Tsuyama han. He is known for his prominent involvement in Western Studies (yôgaku) circles and institutions in the 1850s.

In 1850, he founded a group known as the Ôshûshikai (lit. "Association for the History of the European States"), at which he gave lectures and led discussions. In 1855, the Tokugawa shogunate named him to a post at the shogunate's official Yôgakusho (Western Studies Institute); the following year, the institute was renamed the Bansho Shirabesho and Mitsukuri was named an instructor there.

References

• Ishin Shiryô Kôyô 維新史料綱要, vol 1 (1937), 291.
• Ishin Shiryô Kôyô 維新史料綱要, vol 2 (1937), 102, 184.