KITASATO SHIBASABURŌ, Baron.
Autograph letter signed to Bernhard Proskauer, enclosing a photograph of Robert Koch in Japanese dress.
Tokyo, 2 October 1908.
Folio (282 x 213 mm), pp. [1], 12 lines written in German, on paper headed ‘Institut für Krankheiten. Direktor, Prof. Dr. S. Kitasato’, together with a photograph of Robert Koch in Japanese clothing (138 x 95 mm), mounted, the thick card mount printed with the name of the photographer Maruki Riyō (1850–1923), Atarashibashi Kado, Shiba, Tokyo, and dated on the back in Kitasato’s hand ‘Tokio, d. 22 August 1908’; the letter sometime folded, two punch-holes on left-hand side, some light soiling, the photograph in excellent condition.
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Autograph letter signed to Bernhard Proskauer, enclosing a photograph of Robert Koch in Japanese dress.
A charming letter from the Nobel Prize-winning Japanese physician and bacteriologist Kitasato Shibasaburō (1853–1931) to the German chemist and hygienist Bernhard Proskauer (1851–1915). From 1874 Proskauer worked at the Imperial Health Office in Berlin.
In the letter, Kitasato thanks Proskauer for his earlier letter of 25 August, and tells of his joy at discovering, through the bacteriologist Robert Koch (1843–1910), then in Tokyo, that Proskauer had been appointed director of the ‘Städtischen hygienischen Instituts’ (Municipal Institute of Hygiene) in Berlin. Kitasato goes on to acquiesce to an unknown earlier request from Proskauer asking for news of certain events, and to state that Koch was most happy during his time in Japan: referring to the enclosed photograph of Koch in Japanese clothing, Kitasato jokingly tells Proskauer that Koch has become ‘Japan-ized’ during his time there. The letter ends with Kitasato telling Proskauer that he is well, and that Proskauer will learn more when he meets Koch in person.
‘In 1908 Koch visited Japan at the invitation of Kitasato and was officially welcomed by the Japanese government. After Koch’s death on 27 May 1910, Kitasato built a small shrine in front of his laboratory in honour of the German bacteriologist and deposited there a strand of Koch’s hair and a fingernail, which he had secretly obtained during Koch’s stay in Japan. In 1931 Kitasato died of a stroke and was laid to rest in the shrine of his respected teacher. Each year, on the anniversaries of Koch’s and Kitasato’s deaths, many people pay their respects at the shrine. The notable friendship between Koch and Kitasato is well remembered in Japan as an example of the close bond possible between teacher and pupil’ (DSB).
The photographer Maruki Riyō was ‘one of Japan’s finest portrait photographers whose Tokyo studio was sought out by Japanese and foreigners alike. William Burton, in a June 1894 article, wrote that his portrait work was exceptional and that only Esaki and Suzuki (Shinichi II) could be considered as worthy competitors. Maruki opened his first studio in Tokyo in 1880. In 1915 he received his greatest honour when chosen, along with Ogawa Kazumasa, to photograph the Emperor Taisho. His business continued up until the early 1920s’ (Terry Bennett, Old Japanese photographs, 2006, p. 287).
See O. Mariko, Robert Koch’s 74 days in Japan, Mori-Ôgai-Gedenkstätte der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Kleine Reihe 27, 2003.
