Born into a samurai family of the Ashimori domain in Bitchū (Okayama). Sickly, he resolved to become a doctor.
He went to Osaka and studied Dutch learning under Naka Ten'yū.
He studied in Edo under Tsuboi Shindō and others, and later in Nagasaki, deepening his knowledge of Western medicine.
He opened a practice in Osaka and founded the Tekijuku school, which trained many talents such as Fukuzawa Yukichi, Ōmura Masujirō and Hashimoto Sanai.
To spread smallpox vaccination he opened the Jotōkan in Osaka; though people were at first afraid, he persevered.
Around this time he published a translation of the German physician Hufeland's medical work, also passing on his ethics for doctors.
When cholera raged he quickly issued a book on its treatment and distributed it to doctors.
Summoned by the shogunate to Edo, he became a physician to the shogun and head of the Institute of Western Medicine.
He died suddenly in Edo after coughing up blood.
Ōmura MasujirōHashimoto SanaiFukuzawa YukichiŌtori Keisuke
Townsend HarrisFujita TokoShimazu NariakiraYokoi ShōnanHotta MasayoshiSakuma ShōzanIi NaosukeNabeshima Naomasa (Kansō)
People of the Edo period ・ People by period
Based on facts found in textbooks and biographies. Uncertain points are marked as such.