About
The stone monument standing quietly in the front garden of the Yokohama District Joint Government Building in Yamashita-cho, Naka Ward, Yokohama, endures the passage of time in silence, conveying memories of the past to the present. This place is where Dr. James Curtis Hepburn once lived, kindling the lights of medicine, education, and faith.
In 1859, Dr. Hepburn crossed the sea from America and set foot in Japan. At first, he took refuge at Jōbutsu-ji Temple in Kanagawa-juku and opened a clinic at Sōkō-ji Temple. However, his activities faced extreme difficulties amid the restrictions of the shogunate and the raging storm of anti-foreign sentiment. Even so, he did not give up, and in 1862, he established a new base at Lot 39 in the Yokohama Foreign Settlement.
Here, Dr. Hepburn provided free medical care and saved the lives of many Japanese people. In particular, his treatment of the kabuki actor, the third-generation Sawamura Tanosuke, is well known, and his reputation as a skilled physician was such that a popular song went, “Even Dr. Hepburn or the hot springs of Kusatsu cannot cure the sickness of love.”
He also compiled Japan’s first Japanese-English dictionary, “Waei Gorin Shūsei,” and its romanization system, “Hepburn Romanization,” is still widely used today. Furthermore, together with his wife Clara, he opened a coeducational English academy, laying the foundation for what would later become Meiji Gakuin. From this school emerged individuals such as Korekiyo Takahashi and Hirobumi Hayashi, who would go on to support Japan in later years.
Today, the stone monument standing in the front garden of the Yokohama District Joint Government Building honors Dr. Hepburn’s achievements and conveys his spirit to the present. Beside the monument, a relief of him is engraved, quietly telling his story to visitors. This place, imbued with the breath of history, is a site where one can feel the footsteps of Dr. Hepburn, who laid the foundation for Yokohama’s modernization.