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.

His adoptive heir Mitsukuri Shûhei was appointed to an instructors' assistant position at the Bansho shirabesho in 1859.

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.