１－１．Tracing the Origins of Kanazawa University: the Tradition of Medical Education
（１） Kaga Domain Hikoso Vaccination Center
The history of Kanazawa University began at the Kaga Domain Hikoso Vaccination Center. A vaccination center was a medical institution established for the purpose of preventing and treating smallpox.
Smallpox vaccine was introduced to Kanazawa in 1850. Later, Tsuda Junzo and other Dutch-medicine doctors established a private vaccination center in Tsutsumi-machi and promoted the spread of vaccination. In March 1862 , the Kaga domain granted Kurokawa Masayasu a building called Hankyusha located at Kanazawa Hikoso hachiban-cho, and officially recognized it as a Vaccination Center. This was the opening of the so-called “Kaga Domain Hikoso Vaccination Center.” A total of 25 doctors were involved in this vaccination center, and they also provided medical education, including the teaching of vaccination techniques.
On November 5, 2011, to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the founding of Kanazawa University, an unveiling ceremony was held to mark the site of the former Kaga Domain Hikoso Vaccination Center as the “Birthplace of Kanazawa University.”
Stone monument marking the “Birthplace of Kanazawa University” (in front of Kanazawa Hikoso Post Office)
（２）Kurokawa Masayasu, the Father of Modern Medicine in the Hokuriku Region
Kurokawa Masayasu built the foundations for modern medical education in Kanazawa from the end of the Edo period through the Meiji Restoration. He is known as the father of modern medicine in the Hokuriku region.
Kurokawa was born in Kurokawa Village, Niikawa County, Etchu (now Kamiichi Town, Niikawa County, Toyama Prefecture), and in 1828 followed his father to Nagasaki, where he studied Dutch studies under Yoshio Gonnosuke, an interpreter for P.F. Siebold. In 1840, on his way back from Nagasaki, he was employed by the regent Aoyama Shogen in Kanazawa, and the following year he went to Edo to study. In 1846, he became a domain physician, and held positions at the Soyukan School and Vaccination Center. In 1868, he was dispatched to Nagasaki to conduct a full-scale investigation of Western medicine and its school system. The Kunstlijk, human body anatomical model that remains at Kanazawa University, was purchased at this time. In 1869, Kurokawa Masayasu began work on establishing a medical school, and in February 1870 he established the Kanazawa Medical Institute at the residence of Tsuda Genba, a chief retainer of the Kaga Domain, in Otemachi.
Statue of Kurokawa Masayasu (at the entrance to the School of Medicine Education Hall)
３．Establishment of the National Kanazawa Medical College and the “Former Six Universities”
The Medical Institute, established in 1870, was later transferred to a prefectural government and separated into the Kanazawa Hospital for medical treatment and the Kanazawa Medical School for education. In 1888, it became a national institution and became the Department of Medicine at the Fourth Higher Middle School, and in 1894, the Department of Medicine at the Fourth Higher School. In 1901, by imperial decree, the Department of Medicine was separated from the Fourth Higher School and became an independent institution, called Kanazawa Professional School of Medicine. In 1905, the Hospital Department moved to its current location in Kodatsuno, and in 1912 the Education Department also moved there. In 1922, the Hospital Department was transferred from prefectural to national control and became an affiliated hospital. In April 1923, by imperial decree, the National Kanazawa Professional School of Medicine (Isen) became the National Kanazawa Medical College (Idai), with an affiliated hospital and an affiliated Department of Pharmacology established, and Takayasu Mikito, the principal of Isen, became the first President of Idai.
National Kanazawa Medical College was one of the six national medical universities, along with Niigata, Okayama, Chiba, Nagasaki, and Kumamoto, established before the war, and left a significant mark on the country. Today, it is known as one of the “Former Six Universities”, and has become the foundation for establishing Kanazawa University as a comprehensive university with an emphasis on research.
Foreground Kanazawa Professional School of Medicine (later Kanazawa Medical College) shortly after it moved to Kodatsuno (Takaramachi).
The content of this page is the same as the panel exhibited in the “Shiko no Mori” at Kanazawa University Central Library.
Created in April 2025 by the Working Group on Collections, Kanazawa University Library.