[The position of nursing at the beginning of the Meiji Era: the elucidation of the original source of "Kango-Kokoroe," translated by Dr. Yunei Ota, and a comparative study of the original and translated versions].

In this paper, through a detailed comparison between a translated book on nursing and its original American source, I examine the position of nursing in the mentality of a Japanese doctor at the beginning of the Meiji Era. In 1877, Dr. Yunei Ota published a translated version of a book on nursing titled "Kango-Kokoroe." The original book, titled "A Universal Formulary, 3rd. Edition," was written by R. E. Griffith and published in 1873. Further, I show that Yunei Ota translated a part of its introduction. These two books differ in terms of their target audiences and purposes for publication. From the viewpoint of the doctor-nurse relationship, Yunei Ota described his unique mentality in his translation; that is, he stressed the importance of nursing by stating that nurses were for doctors as wings were for birds. This mentality was rarely found in the original American book. Moreover, Yunei Ota did not make a literal translation; instead, he selected, added, and deleted contents from the book in keeping with a practical standpoint. Yunei Ota recognized that nursing was an indispensable part of medical treatment and he advocated the necessity of nursing education before systematic nursing education had been established in Japan.