Acupuncture and moxibustion for patients / 全日本鍼灸学会雑誌

ABSTRACT

In this report, I trace the life of Prof. Hidetsurumaru Ishikawa who laid the foundation for the present successful development of acupuncture and moxibustion and pursued medical practice based on scientific evidence.<BR>Prof. Ishikawa was born in Toyama Prefecture. After graduation from Tokyo Imperial University, he moved to Kyoto Imperial University to work in Prof. Amaya’s laboratory.<BR>For 4 years starting from 1908, he studied in Europe, mainly under Prof. M. Verworn at Gottingen University, but also briefly visited Prof. I. Pavlov in Petersburg and Prof. E. Starling and Prof. C. Sherrington in England. He learned much about the newest science at that time, and these experiences served as a backbone for his later scientific research.<BR>After returning to Kyoto Imperial University as a professor of physiology, he developed the physiological sciences in Japan. Along with the progression of modern physiology, he came to recognize the need of a scientific approach to traditional medicine, especially acupuncture, as well as a psycho-physiological approach to analyzing human biological conditions. <BR>In the field of neurophysiology, he is famous for a sensational debate against Prof. Kato, who was one of his favorite disciples, about the conduction of electric impulses in anesthetized nerve cellsdecrement or decrementless?<BR>After his retirement from Kyoto Imperial University in 1944, Prof. Ishikawa went to Tsu City as the head of Mie Prefectural Medical College, the predecessor of Mie University Faculty of Medicine and opened the department of acupuncture in the university hospital the following year. During the postwar occupation of Japan, the General Headquarters of the Allied Powers (GHQ) decided to prohibit Japanese traditional medicine, because at that time, the general condition of acupuncture and moxibustion therapy in Japan was far below Western standards.<BR>Learning of the prohibition order, Prof. Ishikawa visited the GHQ over and over again to explain with his own data the scientific basis of acupuncture and to demonstrate the benefits of acupuncture to the GHQ medical officers. Probably due to accumulated strain, in 1949 Prof. Ishikawa had a stroke during a faculty meeting and died about 2 weeks later. Prof. Ishikawa was succeeded by his apprentice, Prof. Kyugo Sasagawa of Kyoto University, who organized the Japan Society of Acupuncture. The first conference was held at Kyoto University in 1953, and the society has been continuously developing to its present successful status.