A Consideration of Four Illustrations of Surgical Operation Referred to in Nyugan Chiken Roku

Four illustrations of a breast cancer operation of Kan Aiya in 1804 are referred to as Figures 2 to 5 in the manuscript Nyugan Chiken Roku. One of Hanaoka's disciples depicted them, standing at the patient's feet, in order not to block the sunlight. Thus, the drawings may have been illustrated as viewed from the front. Because the manuscript lacks the original illustrations, Kure transcribed them from other unidenti- fied manuscripts to reproduce them in his monograph Seishu Hanaoka and His Surgery, but they were illustrations viewed from the side, suggesting that they were different from the original figures. A manuscript in the Kyou Library titled Nyuganzu is considered to convey the original style because its illustrations are presented from a front view. Sixteen sheets of drawing, which are in the possession of the Flower Hill Museum, are considered rough sketches for the original illustrations because they are of Hanaoka's family provenance. Careful examination of these manuscripts and the rough sketches leads to further elucidation of the mysteries of Nyugan Chiken Roku.