Date of Birth: 
Place of Birth: Edo, Japan
About Udagawa Yōan
- Udagawa Yoan (??? ??, March 9, 1798 – June 22, 1846) was a 19th-century Japanese scholar of Western studies, or "Rangaku".
- In 1837, he published the first volume of his Introduction to Chemistry (????, Seimi Kaiso), a compilation of scientific books in Dutch, which describes a wide range of scientific knowledge from the West.
- Most of the Dutch original material appears to be derived from William Henry's 1799 Elements of Experimental Chemistry.
- In particular, the book contains a very detailed description of the electric battery invented by Volta forty years earlier in 1800.
- The battery itself was constructed by Udagawa in 1831 and used in experiments, including medical ones, based on a belief that electricity could help cure illnesses.Udagawa's Science of Chemistry also reports for the first time in details the findings and theories of Lavoisier in Japan.
- Accordingly, Udagawa made numerous scientific experiments and created new scientific terms, which are still in current use in modern scientific Japanese: e.g., “oxygen” (??, sanso), “hydrogen” (??, suiso), “nitrogen” (??, chisso), “carbon” (??, tanso), “oxidation” (??, sanka), “reduction” (??, kangen), “saturation” (??, howa), “dissolution” (??, yokai) and “element” (??, genso).
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