[Anatomy education at the beginning of Japan's Meiji era and an anatomical model with topographical expressions of anatomy under the fasciae].

One anatomical model of a human is preserved at Kyushu University. We presume this model to have been made at the beginning of Japan's Meiji era as a copy of the Anatomie clastique, which was designed and manufactured by Louis Thomas Jérôme Auzoux and imported from France at the end of the Edo era. The model has labels of anatomical nomenclature in Japanese, which are taken from Kazuyoshi Taguchi's Kaibou-Ranyo, (see text) and the unique expressions of topographical anatomy under the fasciae. These are unique characteristics that cannot be seen on the Auzoux original. This model is supposed to have been made for use in professional medical training, and these characteristics reflect the historical background of the times when Western medicine was being introduced into Japan. At that time, Japan urgently needed training for doctors who were acquiring the techniques of surgery, but there was no system to supply a plentiful number of cadavers for use in anatomical education.