Nichibunken News

A Nichibunken Academic Encouragement Award 2024 debriefing session was held on July 23rd, 2025.

This award was established in 2023 to foster the next generation of researchers in Japanese Studies. The awardees are selected from doctoral students recommended by overseas institutions holding academic exchange agreements with Nichibunken or international member institutions (Full Member) of the Consortium for Global Japanese Studies. (Please find out more about the award here.)

For the awardees, Nichibunken will provide research support for up to 90 days of their stay at Nichibunken, including research support from time faculty members and researchers and use of the Nichibunken library and research facilities.

At the debriefing session, the awardee, Mr. Elias Bouckaert, who had been staying at Nichibunken since June, gave a brief presentation on his research.

Following his presentation, participants, including the Nichibunken faculty members and researchers, exchanged many questions and comments actively.

In addition, at the end of his research stay at Nichibunken, Mr. Bouckaert gave the following report on his research.

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“Intellectual Networks and Medical Practice in Edo Period gozōron 五臓論 (“Five Viscera”) Manuscripts”

This research examines the relationship between Buddhism and medicine during the Edo period, focusing on a selection of manuscripts related to the five viscera and six entrails (gozō roppu 五臓六腑), as well as acupuncture and moxibustion therapies (shinkyū 鍼灸). While Kampo medicine and Dutch-style anatomy have traditionally dominated scholarly discussions, this study highlights a lesser-known corpus in which esoteric Buddhist knowledge and medical theory are closely intertwined.

A central focus of this study is a late Edo-period scroll held at Nichibunken, provisionally titled Diagram of the Five Viscera and Six Entrails. This manuscript features anatomical illustrations, charts based on the Five Phases (gogyō), and depictions of esoteric Buddhist concepts such as the five-coloured Sanskrit syllable “A” and the five-ringed stupa (gorintō).

The Edo-period manuscripts investigated draw heavily from medieval esoteric Buddhist traditions, particularly the Gozō Mandala. However, unlike the medieval sources, which primarily emphasized ritual and meditation, Edo-period examples incorporate anatomical drawings and detailed medical practices like acupuncture, indicating a synthesis of religious and medical knowledge.

This discourse extended beyond temple settings and private practice. Notably, a physician serving the Tokugawa shogunate documented similar ideas, demonstrating that these concepts were present within official medical circles.

The findings indicate that Buddhist conceptions of the body persisted and evolved into the early modern period. This convergence of ritual and clinical frameworks calls for a reconsideration of conventional boundaries between religion and medicine.

During my research stay at Nichibunken, access to numerous primary sources and key secondary materials, otherwise difficult to obtain from Belgium, proved invaluable in enriching and solidifying the study. This research requires consideration of various factors including historical events, socio-political dynamics, international trade and exchange, and competing contemporary discourses. Exposure to these additional perspectives has prompted a re-examination and refinement of several hypotheses, thereby enhancing the accuracy and depth of the research.

(by Elias Bouckaert, Nichibunken Research Fellow, Academic Encouragement Award)

• Mr. Elias BOUCKAERT
• Q & A session