Genpaku Sugita (1733–1817) was a Japanese physician and scholar of Dutch learning during the Edo period. While serving as a physician to the Obama domain, he also practiced and taught medicine in Edo. After observing a human dissection in 1771 and recognizing the accuracy of the illustrations in the Dutch anatomical work "Ontleedkundige Tafelen," he began translating it with Ryotaku Maeno, Jun’an Nakagawa, and other scholars. Published in 1774 as "Kaitai Shinsho," their translation systematically introduced Western anatomical knowledge to Japan. In his representative memoir, "Rangaku Kotohajime," Sugita recounts their struggle to translate the text with few linguistic resources and describes how Dutch learning took root and spread in Edo-period Japan.
