Matsuki Akitomo
Nihon Ishigaku Zasshi. 2006 Dec;52(4):561-600.
Goroji Nakagawa, a chief keeper of a trading house on Iturup Island, was brought unwillingly to Siberia by Russian vessels in 1807. In 1812, after about five years of hard life in Siberia, he was permitted to return to his homeland with two Russian books on vaccination. Sadayosi Baba, who stayed at Matsumae in 1813, happened to read one of the two books that had been published in 1803 in Peterburg and he translated it into Japanese. Within several months Baba finished his translation, however, he was clearly aware that the translation was far from perfect. Baba revised his draft in 1820 and titled it "Tonka Hiketu" or "The complete method for relieving small pox infection." But it remained unpublished until 1850, when Sen-an Tosimitsu obtained one of the manuscripts at Nagasaki and published it as "Rosia Gyuto Zensho" or "A Synopsis of Russian Vaccination." At present, sixteen manuscripts of "Tonka Hiketu" are extant in Japan and most of them are in public libraries. Bibliographical considerations of their contents, phonogramic descriptions of the original Russian title, comparisons of their illustrations with the originals and differences among Japanese translations reveal to us that the manuscript "Takeda A," among sixteen extant manuscripts, is the closest to the original manuscript of Sadayosi Baba, which remains lost.
1807年，择捉岛一家贸易行的主管中川五郎次被俄罗斯船只强行带到了西伯利亚。1812年，在西伯利亚经历了大约五年的艰苦生活后，他被允许带着两本关于接种疫苗的俄文书回国。1813年，待在松前的马场贞能偶然读到了其中一本于1803年在彼得堡出版的书，并将其翻译成了日文。几个月内，马场完成了翻译，但他清楚地意识到这个翻译远非完美。1820年，马场对草稿进行了修订，并将其命名为《痘疮秘决》，即《缓解天花感染的完整方法》。但直到1850年，这本书才得以出版，当时仙庵利光在长崎获得了其中一份手稿，并将其出版为《露西亚种痘全书》，即《俄罗斯接种疫苗概要》。目前，日本现存16份《痘疮秘决》手稿，其中大部分保存在公共图书馆。通过对其内容的书目分析、俄文原名的语音描述、其插图与原版的比较以及日文译本之间的差异，我们发现现存的16份手稿中，“武田A”这份手稿最接近马场贞能已经失传的原始手稿。
