Japanese Anatomical Diagrams that utilize 19th-Century Kabuki Actors as Models

The opening of Japan in the 19th century after its isolationist Edo period caused an influx of foreign influence, including Western approaches to medicine. Woodblock prints from this era, often in the vibrant ukiyo-e style, captured this transition, with kabuki actors representing internal processes, and Buddhist deities battling cholera and measles.

The University of California, San Francisco, has a particularly rich collection of over 400 of these works in the UCSF Japanese Woodblock Print Collection. The illustrations are similar to work by famed ukiyo-e woodblock artist Utagawa Kunisada, depicting the workings of internal organs. According to Sotheby’s, which sold one example last December, the tiny samurai on the body of a man drinking a cup of tea with a bowl of fish are miming everything from the gall bladder controlling the order, to a scholar situated in a flaming heart, the mounds of books alongside helping his guidance of the life processes. Another print, believed to be by a student of Kunisada, has a smoking courtesan with annotated figures representing “sexual life rules.”

https://hyperallergic.com/312158/human-anatomy-as-portrayed-in-woodblocks-of-19th-century-kabuki-actors/ https://japanesewoodblockprints.library.ucsf.edu

The Celestial Atlas of John Flamsteed, the first Astronomer Royal, ca. 1776, published in 1795

Flamsteed was born into a prosperous family and was largely self taught as he did not attend University due to poor health. His extensive studies in astronomy resulted in his being appointed the first Astronomer Royal by King Charles II, with the Royal Observatory at Greenwich being built for him to continue his observations of the heavens.

Flamsteed was the first astronomer to sight Uranus in 1690, naming it 34 Tauri, as he believed it to be a star. He accurately calculated the solar eclipses of 1666 and 1668. In 1677 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society and was a peer of such illustrious scientists as Newton, Moore and Halley, with whom his relations were contentious. His Celestial Atlas was published ten years posthumously by his wife. It set the standard in professional astronomy for almost a century, with the positions of over 3,000 stars given more accurately than ever before.

https://panteek.com/Flamsteed/
https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/the-celestial-atlas-of-flamsteed-1795