was a Japanese dermatologist born in Iwaki, Fukushima

Iwaki, Fukushima

is a city located in the southern part of the Hamadōri coastal region of Fukushima Prefecture, Japan.A designated "core city", Iwaki is also one of the growing number of hiragana cities. Its area is 1,231.35 km², making it the 10th largest city in Japan...

. At 12, he went to Tokyo and studied philosophy until 1877. He entered the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies

Tokyo University of Foreign Studies

TUFS is a specialized institution only in foreign language, international affairs and foreign studies, thus it is not as well-known as other big universities such as University of Tokyo and Kyoto University...

 in 1874, where he studied German. He completed his medical training at Tokyo University in 1884 and in 1888 he went to Berlin on an exchange. Although he left due to illness, in Germany he studied under many prominent dermatologists, including: Georg Richard Lewin

Georg Richard Lewin

-Biography:He was born in Sondershausen on April 25, 1820. He died in Berlin on November 1, 1896. He was educated at the universities of Halle and Berlin, graduating as doctor of medicine in 1845. After a postgraduate course at the universities of Vienna, Würzburg, and Paris he settled in Berlin,...

, Gustav Behrend

Gustav Behrend

Gustav Behrend was a German dermatologist who was a native of Neustettin .In 1870 he received his medical doctorate at the University of Berlin, and during the Franco-Prussian War he served as an assistant at the Reserve Lazareth in Berlin...

, and Oskar Lassar

Oskar Lassar

Oskar Lassar was a German dermatologist who was a native of Hamburg. After earning his medical doctorate in 1872, he was briefly a hospital assistant at the Berlin Charité. Afterwards he started a private hospital for dermatology and syphilis in Berlin...

 at the University of Berlin; Mortiz Kaposi and Isidor Neumann

Isidor Neumann

Isidor Neumann, Edler von Heilwart was an Austrian dermatologist.He was a student at the so-called Vienna School of Dermatology under Ferdinand Ritter von Hebra , earning his doctorate in 1858. In 1863 he received his habilitation, and in 1873 became an associate professor...

 at the University of Vienna in Austria. He also studied hygiene and pathology under Robert Koch

Robert Koch

Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch was a German physician. He became famous for isolating Bacillus anthracis , the Tuberculosis bacillus and the Vibrio cholerae and for his development of Koch's postulates....

, who became head of the University of Berlin in 1885.

When he returned to Japan, Murata was appointed the first professor of Dermatology and Syphilology at Tokyo University. Almost coincident was the Japanese government's appointment of Julius Scriba

Julius Scriba

Julius Karl Scriba was a German surgeon serving as a foreign advisor in Meiji period Japan, where he was an important contributor to the development of Western medicine in Japan.- Biography :...

 to the Tokyo University department of surgery and dermatology. Dohi Keizō (土肥 慶蔵, see: Keizo Dohi

Keizo Dohi

was a Japanese dermatologist and urologist. He was a professor of Dermatology and Urology at the Tokyo University, he substantially introduced Western dermatology to Japan...

), who founded the Japanese Dermatological Society in 1900 and the Japanese Journal of Dermatology and Urology in 1901, was an assistant of Scriba.

Murata was the first Japanese person with a medical degree to die.

Selected writings

• 皮膚病梅毒論 (A Treatise on Dermatology and Syphilology) (1889)

A translation of the work of Edmund Lesser

Edmund Lesser

Edmund Lesser was a German dermatologist who was a native of Neisse.He studied medicine at the Universities of Berlin, Bonn and Strasbourg, and in 1876 earned his medical doctorate. Later he became an assistant to Oskar Simon at the dermatological clinic in Breslau, and in 1882 received his...

into Japanese, completed with Ise Jōgorō 伊勢錠五郎