Two Japanese Pioneers in Anesthesiology: Seishū Hanaoka and Gendai Kamada.

Seishū Hanaoka and Gendai Kamada are two Japanese pioneers in anesthesiology. Seishū Hanaoka was the world's first surgeon on record to successfully perform surgery under general anesthesia in 1804. Seishū discovered that six medicinal herbs containing Datura, stramonium, and Aconitum had anesthetic properties. From these, he developed Mafutsusan. His fame spread across Japan, and he was inundated with requests from patients and prospective students. He founded a private medical school (Shunrinken) and trained more than 1000 students. Gendai Kamada was an outstanding pupil of Seishū Hanaoka. From the perspective of the history of anesthesiology, three of Gendai's achievements had a global impact. (1) In 1839, he wrote the first textbook of clinical anesthesiology, Mafutsuto-ron; (2) in 1840, he authored Gekakihai-zufu, which included some of the oldest illustrations of surgery under general anesthesia; and (3) he trained Gensei Matsuoka, the world's second anesthesiologist.