This exhibit presents a number of woodblock prints which depict several different subjects. Traditional Japanese medicine is addressed in a hunt in Kaga Province for highly prized bear gall used for various ailments. Use of this remedy persists to this day, but is now a controversy involving environmentalists and animal welfare advocates. Western medicine and its penchant for advertising are represented in a print from 1895 which heralds a "wonder drug" for coughs. Another late-nineteenth-century print depicts an elaborate but symbolic struggle to defeat smallpox, one of the infectious diseases introduced into Japanese society by European traders. The central focus of this exhibit is a series of three maps -- all of Nagasaki, its harbor, and islands -- one of which was used to segregate Portuguese and Dutch traders. Although trade flourished for three centuries, Japan paid a price in public health and social unrest. Along with the traders came missionaries, and the introduction of Christianity into a closed Shinto and Buddhist society created many religious, social, and political problems. Nagasaki's harrowing history from 1550 to 1850 is briefly told on the labels surrounding the cases. There is a map from each of the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. The largest and most spectacular is dated 1646. You may also browse the online UCSF Japanese Woodblock Print Collection.