only port of entry and only Holland was allowed to enter Japan, as their transactions were understood to be exclusively pertaining to trade. In the early eighteenth century, Western texts were severely restricted in Japan and Western knowledge predominately spread orally, mediated through translators whose grasp of Japanese was limited. As relations evolved with the Dutch, the eighth shogun, Tokugawa Yoshimune (ruled 1716-45), allowed Rangaku (Western learning) to take hold in Japan. Yoshimune launched efforts to systematically study Dutch in 1740, giving rise to the scholarly pursuit of rangaku, however this learning was still restricted from the general public. In many cases by the police who were known to destroy Dutch texts. In mid eighteenth century, Dutch books became sought after as scholarly texts by the Japanese, and it was during this time that Genpaku came into the medical profession. With the acceptance of rangaku, Dutch physicians presented lectures and demonstrations to the Shōgun in Edo. Genpaku attended one such demonstration in 1768 where a Dutch surgeon, Rudolf Bauer, cured a patient with gangrene of the tongue by drawing blood from the infected area. As a practicing physician and scholar of surgery, Genpaku was aware of physician Tōyō Yamawaki's (1705–62) observations through dissection, though only through second hand information from physician Genteki Kosugi. Yamawaki first witnessed dissection of a beheaded criminal on February 7, 1754, and it is thought that his interest in witnessing dissection arose from his possession of a German anatomical text Syntagma Anatomicum. An account of Yamawaki's observations were published as Zōshi (Description of the organs), and this text is credited as the beginning of experimental anatomy in Japan. Also in possession of a Western anatomical text, Ontleekundige Tafelen, Genpaku was interested by the opportunity to witness a dissection. As a physician practicing during the Tokugawa shogun, Genpaku and his contemporary physicians are often referred to as “Tokugawa physicians.” Collectively, these physicians shared a sentiment of radical social equality. Genpaku wrote in Keiei yawa:Other than the differences between males and females, there are no distinctive differences between human beings, from the emperor to all commoners. Where there are no differences, then, humans themselves have artificially created above and below, and the names of the four social statuses. Yet there is no difference between us, because we are all human.Such ideas of equality were not widely accepted in the class based Japanese society, but particularly before Western learning