Japanese Medical Histories

Medicine in Image and Practice: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Japanese Medical History. A new interdisciplinary collaboration between the Faculty of Humanities, the Faculty of Medicine (LUMC), and the Leiden University Libraries (UBL).

Duration:

2026

Contact:

Nadia Kreeft-Mishkovskyi, MA

Funding:

Kiem-beurs (Universiteit Leiden)

Project Objective

The Japanese Medical Histories project aims to develop new research perspectives on the history of medicine in Japan. It brings together historical, medical, and library collections to examine how medical knowledge in Japan was developed, transmitted, and interpreted across different periods.

An important component of the project is to make relevant Japanese historical sources in the Leiden University Library collections more visible, and to connect these sources with current research questions within medical history and the humanities. The project thus serves as an exploratory step toward a larger interdisciplinary research programme on Japanese medical history.

Interdisciplinary Character

Japanese Medical Histories is a collaboration between researchers from the humanities, medical disciplines, and heritage institutions.

Within the humanities and Asian studies, scholars work with Japanese historical sources, texts, and material culture to understand medical knowledge and practices in their historical context. From the Faculty of Medicine, the project examines the development of medical ideas and practices from a medical-historical perspective.

Leiden University Libraries contributes significantly through its Japanese special collections and its expertise in heritage, cataloguing, and the accessibility of historical sources. Through this collaboration, historical medical sources from Japan can be studied from multiple perspectives.

Lectures

In the autumn of 2026, a series of public lectures on Japanese medical history will take place, bringing together medical science, visual culture, and historical research.

The exact dates will be announced later.