About

I am a historian specialized in the history of medicine, plants, and food in Japan.

I was always interested in herbs and foreign languages/cultures, but it would have never come into my mind to study Japanese had I not discovered, by chance, that Tübingen University offered courses in Japanese culture and languages (modern and premodern). After an exchange year in Tokyo and graduation in Japanese studies (M.A.), I found myself in Japan again, this time not as a student, but language teacher for German at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto. During these years I not only emerged myself into teaching and co-writing a textbook for intermediate German, but also embarked on a journey into the world of herbs and healing. I started to learn Japanese and Chinese acupuncture and shiatsu, which – back in Germany – resulted in a license as Certified Non-Medical Practitioner (HeilpraktikerIn) and occupation in own practice.

But the deep interest in finding out how treatment with herbs, plants, and other methods were applied in the past pulled me back to the desk. During my year as a postgraduate at Tsukuba University, I found an intriguing emergency manual named Kōkei saikyūhō from the late eighteenth century, which eventually led me to the University of Cambridge to pursue a PhD in the history of medicine in Japan. The findings from my dissertation drove/encouraged me to further explore if and how traditional healing methods and remedies changed over time.

What originally started as a small side project in which I investigated into the healing properties of food, namely the Japanese radish (daikon), ushered into a larger study that reveals not only the daikon's role as a healing agent but its enormous influence in having shaped Japan's culture profoundly. Parts of my discoveries are summarized in an article and at my website daikonandbeyond.