I visited the American medical doctor Hepburn today (September 3rd) and then went to Elliott on Hepburn’s referral. The treatment of the gums will begin tomorrow. Today (September 6th), I had 9 teeth extracted.

I had trouble eating because of continuous bleeding.” Later, Kido visited Elliott in October and November, which leads us to assume that he also had a denture made. Imada [14] relates an episode in his biography of Dr. Einosuke Obata: “Elliott’s minimum fee was 10 dollars initially, R428 mouse slightly lower than the minimum fee of 15 dollars charged by Eastlack, the first foreign dentist to practice in Yokohama. Elliott defended his expensive fee by saying that they were reasonable in light of the Japanese economic situation

of the times and does not merit criticism. The dental technologies and materials used by the foreign dentists in their practices in Yokohama between 1865 and 1875 (Phase check details I) were compared with those available in Western countries of the same time period. We searched through the literature of dental history, such as “A History of Dental and Oral Science in America” [13], and old brochures of the American dental supplies company, S.S. White, the English dental supplies company, Ash and Sons, and other Western companies to determine when the technologies and materials came into wide clinical usage. The materials and equipment used by the foreign dentists in the Yokohama Foreign Settlement closely matched those in common usage in their home countries, suggesting that they provided dental care and treatments with the latest developments (Table 1). Between 1865 and 1875 (Period I), foreign dentists opened their practices

in the Yokohama Foreign Settlement. Their Japanese assistants aimed to acquire the skills needed to practice modern dentistry, which they perceived as a promising profession. Many of them sat for the National Medical Licensure Examination (for dentistry) to become accredited dentists. In addition to their Japanese qualities of strong curiosity, their filipin ardent passion for learning, and their diligence all point to their unfailing insight about the future of dentistry as an emerging and promising scientific discipline. Einosuke Obata took the National Medical Licensure Examination (for dentistry) in 1875 to become the first licensed Japanese dentist. New rules and regulations for the Medical Licensure Examination were promulgated in October 1883 to include formally dental subjects, leading to a further increase in the number of applicants aspiring to become dentists. The history of modern Japanese dentistry can be divided into the following 4 phases, based on the information contained in the relevant history books written by Imada [14], Kato [15], Sakakibara [16] and Ishii et al. [17]: • Phase I (1865–1875) However, most of these were of imported dental material, with full-scale domestic production finally getting under way in 1926.