Mitsukuri Genpo
was a samurai, doctor, rangaku scholar, author and translator working for Tsuyama Domain during late Edo Period Japan. His given name was Teiichi. Biography Mitsukuri Genpo was born in what is now the Nishishinmachi neighborhood of the city of Tsuyama, Okayama. He was the third child of the clan doctor to Tsuyama Domain, Mitsukuri Sadayoshi; however, his father died when Genpo was age 4, and his elder brother died when Genpo was age 12, making him heir to the family estate. After studying Confucianism and astronomy at the han school, he was sent to Kyoto for three years of medical studies in 1816. In 1819, after his return to Tsuyama, he opened a clinic and married the following year. He was granted a stipend of 50 koku by Tsuyama Domain and a staff of ten assistants. In 1823, he was ordered to accompany the daimyo Matsudaira Naritaka to Edo. He then studied western medicine in Edo under Udagawa Genshin (1769–1834). In 1834 he opened a training center in Edo, but fires and failing health led him to turn to translation. In 1839, he became the official translator from Dutch at the Observatory of the Shogunate government. He was asked to