Beyond conservatism and the boundaries of a medical discipline: a short history of the department of neurosurgery at kyoto university graduate school of medicine.
CONSTANT CHANGE AND the occasional fusion of two different entities can result in the creation of masterpieces, not only in art but also in neurosurgery. Chisato Araki is one of the pioneers of neurosurgery in Japan; his 2-year sojourn in the United States and Europe provided him with an extraordinary amount of experience. He traveled throughout the world at a time when it took 30 days to journey from Yokohama to New York, and he visited with most of the leading contemporary neurosurgeons and observed their operations, never abandoning his highly honed critical insights. Driven by passion and a deep sense of duty to pass on his knowledge and perspective, he became a beacon of hope and encouragement for young physicians working in a country devastated by war. His successor, Hajime Handa, established neurosurgery as one of the branches of neuroscience and fostered the collaborations and exchanges among different disciplines that have become a tradition and hallmark of our Department of Neurosurgery. Through anecdotes and glimpses of the evolution of neurosurgery at our institution, we offer insights into the unique nature of Japanese neurosurgery that may illuminate the path toward the resolution of some of the recent and enduring problems encountered in our specialty.