Doctor taking a female patient's pulse

Category

Library Item

Item no

15124

Title

Doctor taking a female patient's pulse

Description

A Japanese doctor sits on a tatami mat whilst taking a young female patient's pulse. His head is shaved and he wears a sword ('bokuto') under a simple kimono. His patient is wearing a headband and a 'tanzen' or 'dotera', a thick and heavy quilt usually worn over kimonos in winter.
A small tobacco tray lies in front of them, next to a long smocking pipe ('kiseru'). To their right is a 'hakohibachi', a brazier encased in a wooden chest with teapots on it. To their left is a larger cabinet containing what seems to be a vase and bowls. Paper screens or 'shoji' cover most of the back wall.

Artist / maker

von Stillfried-Ratenicz, Franz

Date

1881

Size

19.5 x 24 cm

Type

Photograph

Location

Art and Design Library

This item is part of a collection of prints from the studio of Baron Franz von Stillfried-Ratenicz, an Austrian photographer practising in Japan in the late 1870's. Von Stillfried ran a studio in Yokohama at the same time as his brother Raimund, who was also known as 'Baron Stillfried'. This caused a great deal of confusion with the local residents and visitors to Japan in the Meiji Period, and with art historians today.

This album, which dates from 1879-83, comprises 67 separate mounted prints presented in a lacquerware box. Albums of this kind were popular among foreign tourists, who frequently selected the individual prints they wished to include from the studio's collection. Many of these albumen prints were hand tinted. This was a laborious process for which von Stillfried employed, at the height of his success, a substantial number of Japanese workers. The University of Nagasaki Library owns an identical photograph, which nevertheless has a different colouring: the woman's sleeve is tinted in yellow rather than pink.

This photograph may show the doctor's residence, although it is more probable that this was Baron Stillfried's studio. This type of image depicting daily life activities were indeed very appreciated by his Western clients. The different props (such as the tobacco tray or the pipe) must have been introduced to add some exotic details to this rather simple composition.

In the Edo (1603-1868) and early Meiji Period (1868-1912), Japanese doctors used to shave their heads as physicians were originally Buddhist priests. The sword ('bokuto') they carried were a symbol of their high status and an important piece of their equipment. They generally didn't have a blade and were most of the time a lacquered or carved piece of wood.

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Related subjects

Clothing and dress > Garments > Kimonos

People > Adults > Men

People > Adults > Women

People > Health and safety > Physicians

People > Health and safety > Sick persons

Places > Asia > Japan