This is a story of a female doctor in the Province of Awa, whose name was Inai Seian (1800-1882). It is very rare for a woman to officially get a position as a doctor under the feudal system in the Edo era.



the epitaph about Seiaｎ．

Uncovering Her Story.


1 The story of Seian from the epitaph
　　(Her age is counted by the old Japanese calendar.)

She was born in Shibahara Village about 8km west of Tokushima Castle in the 12th year of the Kanei period (1800), as the second daughter of Inai Risaburo a great farmer. She was sickly and she had a functional disorder of her eyes from early childhood. Her mother was from the Miyamoto family.

 　When she was fifteen years old, her parents were concerned about her health and decided to make her study medicine. She completed her studies at 22 years old. Her majors were obstetrics, setting of broken bones, and internal medicine. She used the pseudonym of Seian and she treated patients at her house. People relied on her very much, and many patients visited her. The more advanced her medical techniques became, the worse her eyesight became. Finally she lost her sight completely, but she continued her work for a long time.

  As for her character, she was warm, mild, fair and gentle. But when she was examining a patient, her attitude was as commanding as any male doctor. She gradually gained wide fame.

　Her father, Risaburo had no son. And he adopted a young man named Manzo from Takabatake Village, recommending his eldest daughter to marry him. After her father died, it became apparent that Manzo was a bad man, indulging himself with debauchery and having his own way in everything. At last he led his family to bankruptcy.

  Seian asked Manzo to get a divorce from her sister, but he rejected her request. The divorce proceedings continued for a long time. Finally she won on the case. The court appointed Seian as a head of the household. Seian's old mother was relieved to have Seian care for her, and pay off all Manzo's debts.

　After that, Seian adopted her cousin named Miyamoto Shigezo from her mother's home as a member of the Inai family. Seian and Shigezo bore poverty and hardships working earnestly together and gradually made a fortune.

　The times changed and the Japanese capital moved from Kyoto to Tokyo. All samurai had lost their jobs. Sigezo died at the age of 55 in the 3rd year of the Meiji era.

　Her grandson Ryoye was already 15 years old, and she sent him to a medical school in Tokushima. He lived up to her expectations. He completed his studies and got a physician’s license.She was very pleased with his success. At last, she passed away at 83 years old in the 15th year of the Meiji era.

　The next year, Nii Atushi composed the above for the epigraph on her tomb, and at the end of the sentences he wrote the following;
　
　“Alas! I have never seen a woman who treated with medicine as well as Ms Inai in the past and present. Although she was blind, she overcame poverty and many troubles, and finally made a fortune. This wonderful case cannot be compared with any others. It is difficult for even most men to be successful in such circumstances”

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　September 16th year of the Meiji era
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Composed sentences and calligraphy
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　by Nii Atsushi

2 The research
　
　This story left me in wonder. And my mother's statement is the same. There had been no more material or clue for my old families, because, the estate of the Inai family was burnt down by an air raid in 1945. My research was started from such conditions.

　After deciphering the epitaph, I had to get more clues from the tombs and Buddhist memorial tablets of the old Inai family. The tombs are located in the delta of the new Yoshino River, at two places, the precincts of the temple and near the site of the old Inai family. On the Buddhist memorial tablets, my grandmother had kept them under the flames of the war and now they are at my uncle's house in Osaka. .I examined them carefully, and I could get fragments of information. I knew the year and the age of her death, but not the real name of Seian from the tablets. This is due to the regrettable discrimination against women in the old days. The real names of men were written on the tablets, but no name about women. I decided to take a stand on this human rights issue. Inai Seian was very famous as a female doctor of Awa Province. She was born in 1800 in Shibahara Village about 8 km from Tokushima Castle. She died in 1882, in the Meiji era. She lived so long, but she should be regarded as a doctor in the Edo era. My memories of the folk tradition is the story through people in modern times,not people in the old days. And even the historical materials lack a view of Seian as a woman and the period of her activity. People likely think her pseudonym the name of a man.

　It can be said in short that her life was full of ups and downs, humility and courage, trials and tribulations, diligence and effort. And she was the only female doctor officially in Awa Province. Generally feudal society did not permit a woman to be a practicing doctor. And it did not permit a civilian woman to ride a horse, either. She lived life to the fullest in a time of unreasonable systems and social upheaval. Her real name was perhaps Sizu、or Oshizu.

　People called her “Bake-isya of Shibahara Village” as a nickname. Bake-isya means a doctor changing her appearance, from a woman to a man like a samurai with a sword riding a horse. She might change her appearance to a man visiting a patient's home,because a woman was not permitted to become a doctor. When my mother, Inai Takako(1918-1997) was a child, a next door neighbor said that Bake-isya was her ancestor. It is strange that she did “Bake-isya” so completely in the feudal system.

　She made specialities of obstetrics, setting of broken bones, and internal medicine. It was said that she studied under Shichijo Bundo, who was an excellent doctor and well-known as “Gassai-isya of Awa”(Awa doctor having everything to be useful in his sack every time, 1782-1854) at that time.Toba Shigeo (a descendant of Bundo,deceased) told me that after Bundo died, she was given his white horse from his family. There was a memorial mound of a horse near east to the old Inai family mansion (according to my uncle Inai Tadayoshi). It is definitely for the white horse. She took care of the horse and perhaps rode the horse to see patients. That scene might have attracted people's attention.

　There is a paper telling an episode about Seian, in the series titled “The Range of Awa Mountains of Great People”(The Tokushima edition of　Mainichi　News Paper, the series from Jan.5th 1962). That report was written by the reporter who heard from Mrs.Tanaka Shigeri, who was a great-granddaughter of Seian, and became a member of the Tanaka family as a bride from the Inai family.

　The paper says that the following; Seian studied under Shichijo Bundo. She was called Bakeisya, and lost sight due to cataracts. She went out to see patients on a horse in Samurai style, and made medicine for patients. She could string a needle for sewing although she was blind. She was so sensitive that she distinguished the sound of steps of someone coming towards her site from away. I think Seian had been engaged in medical care for a long time.

　There is a book.“The Research of Shichijo Bundo”(written by Fujii Takashi, 1976) which touched a little on Seian. It says that She was one of his pupils. I asked the author Mr. Fujii for more information on Seian. He responded to my inquiry that Bundo's diaries had no description on Seian and their majors differed from each other. Bundo studied medicine under Hayashi Togi, who was the doctor for the Hachisuka clan in the Awa Domain. Togi specialized in Chinese herbal medicine and obstetrics. Seian did in obstetrics, bone setting and internal medicine. On the point, Fujii also answered that Seian might have communicated with Bundo in the later years of his life( the card from him was lost). Seian studied something new on the art of medicine under Bundo, because there is a light pole before the tomb of Bundo which says“This pole was built by Seian in Shibahara village.” Today's people including researchers of local history, misunderstand Seian, thinking her a man. The pseudonym of Seian sounds a man's name. In fact, she behaved like a man by working as a doctor.

　I think that Seian studied medicine in many places. In the Edo era, a medical school was not sufficient to become a practicing doctor. At first, the applicant had to study very hard and very long under a good doctor. After the study was completed, he had to exchange more information on medicine with many other doctors. It was also important to pass an official certification by the Awa Domain. It was a tough process, requiring the recommendation of a high ranking samurai.

　In 1988, I succeeded in deciphering the classical Chinese (kanji characters) carved on her tomb. It was an amazing life of Seian. Before then, I remembered that I saw Chinese characters carved on a tomb of the old Inai family in my boyhood, and I was able to get a copy of the scripts carved on the tomb with help from a friendly teacher, who taught me the method of Takuhon(rubbing scripts on a stone).

　In order to make the reading more accurate, I asked Mr.Takeji Sadao, a Doctor of Literature at Tokushima University, to read the Chinese characters again. He showed the reading and confirmed that this story was true, and that Nii Atsushi composed the epitaph. Atsushi was a son of Nii Suichiku, who was a senior retainer of the Tokushima clan. Atsushi was the president of the former Tokushima Junior High School at that time. Ryoye, a grandson of Seian, asked him to make those sentences for the tomb.

　My uncle Tadayoshi called Seian the restorer of the Inai family. When the 7th head of Inai family was Manzo from Takabatake Village, the Inai family went into bankruptcy by his acts. After her elder sister (Manzo's wife)was dead, Seian became the head of the Inai family instead and supported her mother. She received a young man and a woman to make them a newly married couple. Soon Ryoe was born of the two, and became a doctor successfully.

The stone lantern front of the tomb of Bundo says that this was built by Inai Seian who lived in the Shibahara Village.

3 The more research

　Seian was a rare woman to be a doctor in the federal society. A woman in the Edo era was prohibited to ride a horse, but she was permitted officially to ride a horse. It might be for her medical job, or for her disguise as a samurai with a sword. Or it might be because of being the head of the Inai family instead of Manzo. She was a woman who was on an equal footing with a man in feudal society. Unfortunately she did not marry.

　According to “the notification prohibiting riding a horse and prohibiting an accident with a horse in the Awa Domain”(in 1757 July), a peasant could not ride a horse in his village and all people except high ranking samurai could not ride a horse in the areas near the Tokushima Castle. Although people sometimes broke the prohibition, it was impossible for a woman to ride a horse. Notifications were for samurai keeping the class system.

　In the above story, we feel Manzo from Takabatake Village was very bad, but he was not bad like the script written on the tomb. I heard it from Kakuno Syoichi, the son of Ryoye (opened a sushi restaurant in Kyusyu, deceased.), that Manzo was a very good man, but suffered from tuberculosis. Seian might make him take a rest in an inner drawing room. Dr.Takeji Sadao told me that a bad thing was changed to the other for the public message. For a family, tuberculosis was more dishonorable than debauchery.

　The Inai family in Shibahara Village was begun by Inai Mataemon (Samurai name, ?-1643), who cultivated the Shibahara wilderness in the beginning of the Edo era..And the family made acquired private land. In the old times, there was not so large a population in Shibahara Village, because the Yoshino River flowed nearby. The river flowed north from the upper point Daiju Village till 1672. But the river burst the bank and flowed separately.The new river became very big and was called the Yoshino River, too. There was land privately owned by the Inai family near or in the river. The residents had to build a house on a high stone foundation like a castle in Shibahara against a flood. Yes, Inai's house was very big on a high stones base with cherry trees along a private road from the main road to the front gate. The riverside was very dangerous for people to live on. Small houses were washed away by floods. There are many scars and folk-tales of floods occurring in Shibahara in the old days. One of the important pieces of evidence is a very high stone image of Buddha standing over the village. But although the village was a dangerous place for living, a flood made the lands very fertile for planting. .

　I will show you a very interesting episode;
　The shrine nearby the Inai mansion called “Hachiman Jinja”, that was dedicated to the god for victory in war and happiness in the village, held horse race every month 1st and 15th. Many young men in the village participated. Seian joined in race with many young men. Kashima, one of the senior retainer of the Tokushima clan, came to see it many times. One day of the festival, he asked his followers whether Inai Seian was a man or a woman. I heard this story from my aunt. The Kashima's words, " Is Inai Seian a man or a woman? "are very interesting for me and meaningful. they make images in my mind. She competed with the many other young men in man's kimono style.

　Kakuno Shoichi said that the Inai family was formerly divided from a family of a feudal lord's chief retainer. Inai might have had close relation with a chief retainer. Inai might hold a status of “Harashi” or “Senkibokonin”. Harashi was the samurai who cultivated the wildness in the early Edo period. And senkibokonin was the peasant who had the contract to join a reserve force under a chief retainer in the early Edo period. They both were peasants, but high ranking peasants. The inai family were high ranking farmers in the Edo period. They contributed important agricultural products to the Awa Domain. There are two places of their graves. The first and second tombs are very different from the later tombs in the style. The first and second are a little luxurious. Almost all are normal and of poor making of the sandstone from the Yoshino River.

　I heard another story from my aunt Seian was blind in later years, but she was very sharp. She was given a drink of sake after treatment in a patient's house, but the sake had been offered up to a god in the house. She knew it, but did not scold them. She was lenient with poor people.
　
　One more episode I will tell you. I heard it from my mother. People held a festival called “Inoko Matsuri” that meant the festival of babies of wild boar, wishing for fertility. It was added with a very strange act by them. Stealing fruits in the neighborhood was free from punishment on that night. One night of Inoko Matsuri, Seian scolded loudly the man stealing fruits on her property in the darkness. He was very surprised and ran away at full speed. Next morning, she met him, greeting her with a smile. She knew that he tried to steal fruits from her.

　I will tell you about the motive of Seian for studying medicine. Above it said, her father Risaburo had no boy. But it is not strictly true. He really had three boys. Their names were Matajiro, Syukichi and Kumaya. They died one after another. They probably died from a disease. Naturally Risaburo felt very sad for the death of his sons. The treatments were in vain, and his daughter Seian gradually developed the will to become a doctor. In the old days, Japanese woman did not want to ask a male doctor in a case of women's disease or labor. The skill level of Obstetrics in Japan was very high about 250years ago. .Bone setting was high ,too. It is no doubt that she desired to become a doctor for women and children.

　Seian worked for long time, and she was considered to be a doctor in the Meiji era. But we must consider her to be a female doctor in the Edo era. Why could she work in the Meiji era? She was majoring in obstetrics, bone setting and internal medicine. Her fields of medicine worked sufficiently in the beginning meiji era. And there were few doctors in the village yet. People needed a doctor like Seian.

4 Finally

　Inai Seian was a rare doctor in the time of the Tokugawa Shogunate. Her life was full of ups and downs. There were three female doctors in Shikoku island in the era. One of three was Nonaka En, a daughter of Nonaka Kenzan, and one was Kusumoto Ine, a daughter of a foreign doctor from Holland in Iyo, Ehime Prefecture. It is mysterious why Seian became a doctor under the feudal system.
　An importance of education is not only for girls themselves, but also for many people in future. I deeply think it so. Even today it is very difficult for a female to have her own career. I hope Japan will be a complete society of gender equality.