"Mori Ogai in military uniform"
Photograph 1912 C.E.
The November 2024 Art In Medicine topic is about surgeon and writer, Mori Ogai.
Lucinda Bennett, the Medical Librarian at Ascension St Agnes Hospital in Baltimore, MD, publishes a regular series on Art in Medicine and The Health Humanities.
It's only 1-2 pages with gorgeous images, so it won't take you long to read
... and just might enrich your life.
Mori Ōgai - Surgeon & Writer
The reigning thesis of this ongoing project has been to connect
the dots between the realms of medicine and the humanities.
Sometimes the best proponents of combining these disciplines
are the practitioners themselves. This month we highlight a
historical figure who made his mark on the modern literary
world during a tumultuous time in his nation’s history. Mori
Ōgai is considered to be one of the most influential writers of
Japanese modernism, he also happened to be a respected army
surgeon.
“Born in Shimane, the son of a doctor serving in the Tsuwano
Clan. After graduating from the University of Tokyo Faculty of
Medicine in 1881, he became an army surgeon. He was sent to
Germany to study from 1884 to 1888. In 1907, he was
promoted to surgeon general and was appointed head of the
Medical Division of the Army Ministry, the highest post of
army surgeons. He was transferred to the reserve in 1916, and
was appointed the head of the Zushoryo and the Imperial
Museum in 1917. While managing public affairs, he was active
as a novelist, critic, and translator.” (National Diet Library)
When Ōgai was born in the mid-19th century, the cultural
landscape of Japan was rife with change, the end of the
centuries old Shogunate and the rush to modernization. By
engaging with Western medicine, in combination with a traditional education in his homeland, Ōgai participated in the near whiplash of changing times that was the Meiji period - an era that is still mythologized in media to this day. “In 1872, he went with his father to Tokyo and the rest of the family soon followed. The main focus of Western medical studies had switched from Dutch to German medicine, so Ōgai began learning
German at a private school, and entered the First University District Medical School at the age of 11. This was
renamed Tokyo Medical School the following year, and became the University of Tokyo Faculty of Medicine in
1877. The university’s medical training was conducted in German by German professors, but Ōgai was also learning
Chinese poetry and prose outside the university, reading Chinese medical classics, and studying waka poetry with a
kokugaku (national learning) professor. Thus, Ōgai’s youth was dominated by education in the Japanese, Chinese,
and Western traditions, and the acquisition of a number of languages.” (Nippon.com)
It is important to remember that Japan had only been open to the outside world for a short period of time when Ōgai
began his medical studies. From 1603 to 1868 the borders of the nation were closed in an isolationist policy.
According to Nippon.com, as he went through his various examinations, Ōgai became known as a “two-footed
student” for his insistence in dual studying in European arts and culture next to Japanese medicine and literature.
Perhaps we might call this a double-major in today’s terms.
"The Dancing Girl"
Mori Ogai, 1890 C.E. Source: Nippon.com
In following a passion for the written word whilst simultaneously rising through the ranks of the Japanese army
surgeons, this physician-writer became a forefront figure in the quickly evolving landscape of Modernism.
“His critical assertions in both the popular press and the
intellectual press resulted in drama being considered equal to
other forms of literature, and in the idea that well-respected
individuals could read drama, attend the theater and engage in
serious discussions about both. His debates in print with
Tsubouchi Shōyō, his intellectual rival, focused on the nature
and purpose of drama. Tsubouchi advocated for Realism, while
Mori sensed a universal ideal behind literature. Collectively
they staked out important principles behind modern Japanese
dramatic literature.” (Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism)
Modernism is a movement which leans towards the depictions
of the mundane, of the ordinary experiences of common people
as well as the reflections of the artist/writer upon the events of
their era. As a surgeon, Ōgai was witness to a great many
intense emotions and scenarios, being a veteran of several wars
and a student of human experience.
“In 1890 he published the story “Maihime” (“The Dancing
Girl”), an account closely based on his own experience of an
unhappy attachment between a German girl and a Japanese
student in Berlin. It represented a marked departure from the
impersonal fiction of preceding generations and initiated a
vogue for autobiographical revelations among Japanese writers.
Ōgai’s most popular novel, Gan (1911–13; part translation: Wild Goose), is the story of the undeclared love of a moneylender’s mistress for a medical student who passes by her house each day. Ōgai also translated Hans Christian Andersen’s
1890 autobiographical novel Improvisatoren … In 1912 Ōgai was profoundly moved by the suicide of General Nogi Maresuke, following the death of the emperor Meiji, and he turned to historical fiction
depicting the samurai code. The heroes of several works are warriors who, like General Nogi, commit suicide in
order to follow their masters to the grave. Despite his early confessional writings, Ōgai came to share with his
samurai heroes a reluctance to dwell on emotions. His detachment made his later works seem cold, but their
strength and integrity were strikingly close to the samurai ideals he so admired.” (Britannica)
References:
National Diet Library
Nippon.com
Encyclopedia Britannica
Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism
Reprinted with the generous permission of Ms. Bennett.
