Early modern Japan stood at the crossroads of medical knowledge circulation, participating in dynamic exchanges that transcended political boundaries and encompassed both regional and intercontinental networks. From the late seventeenth century, the development of printing technology profoundly reshaped the local dissemination of medical knowledge, breaking the monopoly previously held by literate physicians and monks over textual transmission. This new print culture greatly facilitated the diffusion of acupuncture texts. In addition to treatises imported from China and Korea — often reissued in Japanese editions with or without commentary — Japanese physicians also produced their own works on acupuncture. These publications, along with the production of acupuncture mannequins and illustrations, became integral to the assimilation and dissemination of the acupuncture vessels theory in Japan. This article examines how this theory was appropriated and received during the Edo period, focusing on both the processes of hybridization inherent in its circulation and its concrete application in clinical practice, as evidenced by the casebooks of the physician Nakashima Yūgen (1808–1876).
