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How Did a Smallpox Vaccination Clinic in Edo Become the University of Tokyo's Medical School?

Category: History & Culture

Japan's best-known medical school did not start as a school. It started in 1858 as a small clinic in Edo (the city now called Tokyo) where people could be vaccinated against smallpox. In Japanese it was called a shutōsho, roughly "vaccination station." About 83 doctors contributed money to set it up, and the University of Tokyo's Faculty of Medicine still names it as its starting point [1].

How does a vaccination clinic turn into a university faculty? The short answer is a chain of steps: a fire, a move, a takeover by the government, and a string of new names. This article follows those steps, and also points out where the records say less than we might wish.

Why a Vaccination Clinic Counts as the Start of a Medical School

Smallpox was a dangerous infectious disease, and in the 1800s the main defense was vaccination with cowpox, a milder illness that cattle carry. In Japan, the National Diet Library records the doctor Ito Genboku as the first person in Japan to give cowpox inoculations, in 1849 [2]. The clinic itself was built by Edo doctors trained in Dutch medicine.

The Faculty of Medicine's own timeline begins the story in May 1858: 83 Dutch-medicine doctors of Edo contributed money, and a vaccination station was set up at Otamagaike, a spot in the Kanda district [1]. A paper from the National Archives of Japan, which I could only read in summary, describes the founders the same way, as volunteer doctors trained in Dutch medicine [4]. So the clinic was a private project of doctors, not a government school. The next question is what kept it alive.

What Happened When a Fire Destroyed the Clinic Six Months After It Opened

In November 1858, a fire that started in Kanda's Aioi-cho district spread to the clinic and burned it. The doctors did not close. According to the Faculty's timeline, the work went on at Ito Genboku's house and other doctors' homes [1].

In September 1859 a new building was put up in Shitaya, on the street called Izumibashi-dori, and the clinic moved there [1]. So a clinic paid for by volunteers kept working after a disaster. But a private clinic is hard to keep funded for long, so what came next?

How the Shogunate Took Over the Private Clinic and Added Medical Teaching

In October 1860 the clinic became a vaccination station run directly by the shogunate, the military government that ruled Japan at the time [1]. The National Diet Library's note on Ito Genboku adds that he was appointed to direct it after it passed to the shogunate [2].

The change that matters most for our question came in October 1861. The clinic was renamed Seiyō Igakusho (roughly "Institute of Western Medicine") and was split into three departments: teaching, anatomy (studying the structure of the body) and vaccination [1]. From then on, vaccination was only one of three jobs. The place trained doctors as well as treating people. In February 1863 the name was shortened to Igakusho, "Institute of Medicine" [1].

The sources I read do not explain why the shogunate chose to take the clinic over, or why "Western" was dropped from the name. Those are open questions, and I did not want to guess at motives.

How a Run of Name Changes Led to the University of Tokyo in 1877

In 1868 the shogunate fell and a new government took power; the Meiji period began. The Faculty's timeline then lists the school's names one after another [1]:

  • 1869: first a school-and-hospital, then Daigaku Tōkō (roughly "East School of the University").
  • 1871: shortened to Tōkō, after the Ministry of Education was created.
  • 1872: renamed the Medical School of the First University District, when Japan set up a nationwide school system.
  • 1874: renamed Tokyo Medical School.

In November 1876 the school moved to Hongo, and in April 1877 it merged with Tokyo Kaisei School to form the University of Tokyo, with Tokyo Medical School becoming its Faculty of Medicine [1]. The University's own history page describes the same merger, which created four faculties (law, science, letters and medicine) [3]. That is 19 years after the Otamagaike clinic opened.

One thing to keep in mind: the Faculty counts its roots from the 1858 clinic, and the University's history presents the 1877 merger as the point where the university itself began. Both statements are true at once, because "the faculty" and "the university" started at different times.

How You Can Check the Vaccination Story Yourself

You can look at the original timeline yourself. The Faculty of Medicine's prospectus (a booklet for prospective students) has a year-by-year list of every change above. It is written in Japanese, but the years and place names are easy to spot, and a browser's translate feature may help with the rest.

If you have access to your own vaccination record, you could look at it with a parent or guardian. It is the booklet or card where each shot and its date are written down. Those routine entries are the same kind of protection that the doctors at Otamagaike were trying to spread. If you visit Tokyo, the old Otamagaike site is in Kanda, but check a map or a local guide before you go rather than relying on this page for the exact spot.

Sources

Links were checked in October 2026.

  1. University of Tokyo Graduate School of Medicine / Faculty of Medicine, Prospectus 2019-2020 (Japanese edition), history timeline https://www.m.u-tokyo.ac.jp/information/pamphlet/Prospectus_2019-2020j.pdf (Primary source from the Faculty itself. I read the opening pages and the dated timeline from 1858 to 1877: the 83 donors, the fire, the 1859 move, the 1860 shogunate takeover, the 1861 three departments and all later names. The rest of the long PDF was not read.)
  2. National Diet Library, Portraits of Modern Japanese Historical Figures, "ITO Genboku" https://www.ndl.go.jp/portrait/e/datas/6478 (Read in full. Covers the 1849 cowpox inoculations, the 1858 founding, and his appointment as director after the shogunate takeover. It credits Ito personally with founding the clinic, while the Faculty's timeline credits the 83 doctors together, so this article says the doctors founded it and Ito was a leading figure.)
  3. The University of Tokyo, "History" https://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/about/history.html (Read the opening section. Describes the merger of Tokyo Kaisei School and Tokyo Medical School into the four faculties of the University.)
  4. Journal of the National Archives of Japan (Kitanomaru), vol. 57, article on the Kanda Otamagaike Vaccination Center https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/kitanomaru/57/0/57_38/_article/-char/en (Abstract only, and only through a search summary, because the page itself would not load for me. Used only for the description of the founders as volunteer doctors trained in Dutch medicine. That summary gives a slightly different month for the 1860 shogunate takeover than the Faculty's timeline, so this article says only "October 1860" from the Faculty's timeline and does not rely on the abstract for dates.)