Shibasaburo Kitasato

2024/07/05

Image: Fukuzawa Memorial Center for Modern Japanese Studies

"Alas, the teacher who was the planter of my science and the protector of my business is now gone. I feel in my heart as if I have truly lost a father. However, the teacher's great achievements still exist before my eyes, and his legacy remains clearly in my mind. Although I am not talented, I intend to protect those great achievements, embody his legacy, and strive through diligent study to repay his kindness in some small way. Alas, how sad."

This is the conclusion of the "Condolence Speech for Yukichi Fukuzawa" written by Shibasaburo Kitasato in the "Journal of Bacteriology" on February 7, 1901, the day before the funeral of Yukichi Fukuzawa. He also wrote, "On this occasion, I find myself unable to bear the sobbing. Why is this? It is because I have bid eternal farewell to the teacher who was the planter of my science and the protector of my business." This passage clearly shows what Yukichi Fukuzawa meant to Kitasato.

Kitasato and Yukichi Fukuzawa met in 1892, when Yukichi Fukuzawa was 57 and Kitasato was 39. However, the groundwork for this meeting had been laid much earlier.

Born in Kitasato Village, Oguni-go, Higo Province, Kitasato studied at Kumamoto Medical School from 1871, and in 1875, he moved to Tokyo Medical School (today's University of Tokyo Faculty of Medicine). The principal was Sensai Nagayo, a close friend of Yukichi Fukuzawa since their time at Tekijuku. Upon graduation in 1883, Kitasato joined the Sanitary Bureau of the Ministry of Home Affairs, where Nagayo served as the Officer.

At that time, measures against infectious diseases such as dysentery and cholera were urgent issues. Kitasato was dispatched to Germany by the Sanitary Bureau and, from 1886, began researching under the bacteriologist Robert Koch at the University of Berlin.

During his stay of about five years, Kitasato immersed himself energetically in research and achieved significant results, such as the anaerobic pure culture of tetanus bacilli and the development of immune serum therapy. Although Kitasato received invitations from universities and research institutes across Europe and America, he declined them and returned to Japan in May 1892.

During his stay in Germany, there was also a controversy over beriberi. Today, it is known that beriberi is caused by a deficiency of vitamin B1, but at the time, Masanori Ogata of the Imperial University reported that he had discovered the pathogen in the blood of beriberi patients. Pekelharing of the Netherlands also reported a beriberi bacterium. In response, Kitasato published a view denying the pathogenic theory of beriberi bacteria. To Kitasato, Ogata was a senior and a mentor from whom he had learned bacteriology before studying abroad. Consequently, Hiroyuki Kato, who would later become the president of Tokyo Imperial University, criticized Kitasato as "one who does not understand the way of master and disciple," and Mori Ogai criticized him, saying, "Kitasato, in his eagerness to value knowledge, ended up forgetting emotion." Kitasato countered that one cannot pursue the truth without suppressing "personal feelings" and engaging in research with "impartiality and selflessness." This integrity as a scholar was something that was strengthened under Koch.

Upon returning to Japan, Kitasato was treated coldly by the Ministry of Education and the Imperial University due to the aforementioned circumstances, and he struggled to find a research environment. Nagayo, unable to stand by and watch, consulted Yukichi Fukuzawa. Yukichi Fukuzawa immediately provided leased land near Shiba Onarimon, which he had prepared for his children, and with the cooperation of businessman Ichizaemon Morimura, a good supporter, established the Institute for Study of Infectious Diseases. From then on, he supported Kitasato throughout his life.

The Institute for Study of Infectious Diseases soon received support from the Great Japan Private Sanitary Association. This allowed for the expansion of activities with government subsidies, but this association was also originally created as a private organization to promote the improvement of Japan's sanitary environment and the spread of health ideas. Its main members were people close to Yukichi Fukuzawa, such as Sensai Nagayo, Toan Matsuyama, Tai Hasegawa, and Shinpei Goto.

In the following year, 1893, the institute moved and expanded to land in Atagoshita with government subsidies. However, an opposition movement arose from the local community. Yukichi Fukuzawa worked hard to calm the situation. For example, to demonstrate practically that bacteria were not frightening, he built a new residence for his second son, Sutejiro, next door. Additionally, in the Jiji Shinpo, which Yukichi Fukuzawa founded, he published articles such as "The Institute for Study of Infectious Diseases and Nearby Residents," and wrote and published editorials titled "Regarding the Institute for Study of Infectious Diseases" and "The Circumstances of the Institute for Study of Infectious Diseases." The latter, in particular, contained Kitasato's long letter of resignation, but this letter, actually penned by Yukichi Fukuzawa, touched people's hearts, the opposition movement finally subsided, and Kitasato was able to move to Atagoshita safely while remaining Director.

Thereafter, the Institute for Study of Infectious Diseases developed smoothly. Rokuro Takano, a member of the institute, wrote the following in his book:

"The Institute for Study of Infectious Diseases is the general staff headquarters for infectious disease prevention in our country. Kitasato appears to be the Chief of General Staff for epidemic prevention. While the administrative work of epidemic prevention is carried out by the Sanitary Bureau of the Ministry of Home Affairs, its academic guidance was handled by Kitasato. Since the main part of sanitary administration at the time was epidemic prevention, it was said that while the formal head of the Sanitary Bureau was in Otemachi, the real head was in Atagoshita. In fact, the prevention of infectious diseases in Japan was at Kitasato's discretion, and the epidemic prevention officials in the country were Kitasato's students."

In Japan at that time, typhoid fever, dysentery, and cholera were prevalent in the summer, and diphtheria in the winter. The research and manufacture of vaccines for these also became the work of the institute. Furthermore, the institute took on the research and prevention of endemic diseases of unknown origin found throughout the country.

Another form of support from Yukichi Fukuzawa was the "Yojoen," a specialized hospital for tuberculosis built in 1893 on his own land in Shirokane Sanko-cho. Yukichi Fukuzawa himself took the lead in everything from expanding the land to constructing the buildings. For management, he appointed Keio University alumni Shigeaki Tabata as the administrative chief. Reflecting on the situation after the opening, Tabata later recalled, "Because of the patients who gathered seeking Dr. Kitasato's great fame, the gate was immediately crowded like a marketplace, and the sixty-plus hospital rooms were always full, leading to expansion after expansion and a constant state of being full." Yukichi Fukuzawa continued to stop by frequently and offer advice until his final years.

In 1899, the Institute for Study of Infectious Diseases was transferred to the state and began to be operated as a project of the Ministry of Home Affairs. To expand the functions of the Institute for Study of Infectious Diseases, which had effectively become a vital national institution responsible for the nation's sanitation, further expansion was necessary. Finer facilities were built on a new site in Shirokanedai, and it became an institute that could take pride in being one of the world's three major research institutes, alongside the Koch Institute and the Pasteur Institute, in both name and reality.

However, when consulted about the transfer, Yukichi Fukuzawa confirmed that all operations would remain under Kitasato's command and then did not forget to caution him: "I see, that is fine then, but there is one thing I must tell you. Generally, people should save money while their path is clear. Even if the government trusts you today, you never know when they might change their mind or what might happen, so never be off your guard and save as much as you can while your path is clear."

This warning became a reality after Yukichi Fukuzawa's death. In October 1914, due to government policy, the Institute for Study of Infectious Diseases was suddenly and unilaterally transferred from the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Home Affairs to the Ministry of Education and became affiliated with Tokyo Imperial University.

At this time, Kitasato, unable to accept the policy, resolutely decided to resign. All the staff of the institute also wished to resign along with Kitasato and resigned en masse. Then, in the following November, he founded the private Kitasato Institute on the grounds of Yojoen, and the institute building was completed the following year. Without forgetting Yukichi Fukuzawa's advice, Yojoen had steadily accumulated profits thanks to Kitasato's reputation and Tabata's sound management. With those assets, he was able to establish a research institute completely independent from the government.

Regarding his feelings at that time, Kitasato said at a commemorative meeting for Yukichi Fukuzawa's birthday held at Mita Hilltop Square on January 10, 1915, "That is where I received spiritual influence from Yukichi Fukuzawa, because I believed that human independence and self-respect lie here," and spoke as follows.

"In any case, I have worked independently until today based on the principles and policies researched by my predecessors, and I cannot work under someone whose principles and policies are completely different from what I have done. As long as I respect the independence of my learning, I have decided that there is no need to remain there even if it means compromising my integrity."

Yukichi Fukuzawa was a person who strongly advocated for the breaking down of the worship of the official and the independence of learning from politics throughout his life. He often used the expression "not compromising one's integrity." This public speaking shows that Kitasato was strongly influenced by Yukichi Fukuzawa even in his choice of expressions, and used them as emotional support.

The establishment of the School of Medicine at Keio University took place shortly after, in 1917. Discussions about adding a science-related department, which had been repeatedly considered but not realized for financial reasons, began around the end of 1915. There was debate over whether to make it a Faculty of Science and Technology or a Department of Medicine, but the deciding factor was that Shibasaburo Kitasato could be secured as the center of the Department of Medicine.

Kitasato, who felt a strong sense of gratitude toward Yukichi Fukuzawa, expressed his aspirations for the School of Medicine at the commemorative meeting for Yukichi Fukuzawa's birthday in 1917, saying, "It is a great honor for me, who previously received the kind favor of the late teacher, to take charge of the university, and I am determined to do my utmost." Not only Kitasato, but also his disciples, including Taichi Kitajima, who developed serum therapy for habu snake venom, Kiyoshi Shiga, who discovered the dysentery bacillus, Sahachiro Hata, who developed the chemotherapy drug Salvarsan, and Mikinosuke Miyajima in parasitology, participated in the founding.

In 1920, the hospital opened in Shinanomachi and a commemorative ceremony was held; the draft of the address for this occasion remains. To the main text, which appears to have been written by a staff member, Kitasato added in his own handwriting:

"Maintain constant contact and joint research between the basic and clinical departments.",

"Independence and self-respect in learning is, naturally, independence in management.",

"The academic culture of Keio is familialism, which is exactly the same as my own assertion. Have no servant mentality."

The phrase "Have no servant mentality" likely encapsulates Kitasato's spirit of loathing the compromise of one's integrity against one's true heart or fawning over officials, and his strong wish for the stance of the Keio School of Medicine.

The portraits on the banknotes will change this July, and we should occasionally remember that Kitasato, who replaces Yukichi Fukuzawa, was also a person who inherited Yukichi Fukuzawa's ideas and valued the breaking down of the worship of the official and the independence of learning.