Erwin von Belz. (ca. 1877)

Balz, Erwin von, ca. 1877 Dr. Erwin Balz, cofounder of modern medicine in Japan January 13, 1849 - August 31, 1913 Dr. Erwin Balz was a foreign teacher and internist who came to Japan during the Meiji period. As an instructor at the Tokyo Medical School, the University of Tokyo School of Medicine, and the Imperial University Medical College, and finally as an official of the Imperial Household Agency, he greatly influenced medical education and the westernization of medicine in Japan. He was born in Bischigheim, a rural town in the Swabian region of Germany. In 1876, he signed a contract with Shuzo Aoki, the Japanese Minister to Germany, to become a teacher of physiology and internal medicine in Berlin (for two years). In June of the same year, he was appointed to the Tokyo Medical School. Lives in the foreign teacher's residence in Hongo, on the site of the Kanazawa (Kaga) domain residence. At the expiration of his contract in 1999, his contract was postponed for another three years at the request of the Japanese side. In the 1900s, Japanese professors began to alienate Bälz, and he decided to return to Japan, retiring in 1934, the year after the 25th anniversary of his tenure in Japan. During his tenure in Japan, he opened up the fields of Japanese parasitology, physical therapy including hot spring therapy, anthropology of traits, and psychiatry, and promoted the promotion of traditional martial arts such as judo to improve health. He had a close friendship with Ito Hirobumi and gave him advice on foreign affairs. Dr. Erwin Balz (13 Jan. 1849 ? Invited by the Japanese government for a two-year contract with the Medical College of Japan. Invited by the Japanese government for a two-year contract with the Medical College of Tokyo Imperial University in 1876 (now Univ. of Tokyo). During his tenure, taught Western medicine to over 800 students, In 1902 Balz was appointed personal physician to Emperor Meiji and the Imperial household. Photo taken in San Francisco by Henry William Bradley, ca. 1877. Japanese names listed surname first.)