Johann Caspar Scheuchzer

Johann Caspar Scheuchzer, (26 January 1702 – 21 April 1729; also known as Hans Kaspar and Jean Gaspard) was a Swiss naturalist, physician and writer on the history and culture of Japan Scheuchzer was born in Zürich.

The third child of the Zürich scholar Johann Jakob Scheuchzer (1672–1733) and his wife Susanna,[1] he grew up in a stimulating environment.

Scheuchzer translated and edited the manuscript "Today's Japan" by Engelbert Kaempfer, which had been acquired by Hans Sloane with the rest of Kaempfer's collection – this translation was published in two folio volumes in 1727, with a title page reading: The History of Japan: giving an account of the ancient and present state and government of that empire; of its temples, palaces, castles and other buildings; Of Its Metals, Minerals, Trees, Plants, Animals, Birds and Fishes; Of The Chronology and Succession of the Emperors, Ecclesiastical and Secular; Of The Original Descent, Religions, Customs, and Manufactures of the Natives, and of their Trade and Commerce with the Dutch and Chinese.

Physician to the Dutch Embassy to the Emperor’s Court; and translated from his Original Manuscript, never before printed, by J. G. Scheuchzer, F.R.S.

He died in spring 1729 in Sloane's house in London and was buried on 24 April in the churchyard of Chelsea Old Church.

Frontispiece of History of Japan , translated by Scheuchzer, 1727
The first map of Edo produced in Europe – Scheuchzer based it on a Japanese woodblock print. History of Japan , 1727, Tab XXX
A mortality table from Scheuchzer's An account of the success of inoculating the small-pox in Great Britain, for the years 1727 and 1728 (1729)