[Hiroshi Kawahara: A Founder of Japanese Neurology: The Origin of Neurology in Nagoya].

Hiroshi Kawahara (1858-1918) graduated from Tokyo Medical School, the predecessor of the present Faculty of Medicine at the University of Tokyo, where he was strongly influenced by Erwin von Baelz. Soon after, Kawahara was appointed to a professorship of internal medicine at Aichi Medical School (now Nagoya University, School of Medicine). One of Kawahara's greatest contributions to Japanese neurology was the first publication of a textbook of clinical neurology written in Japanese. Published in 1897, it contains 469 pages of text with many original figures observed by Kawahara himself, covering a variety of organic and functional neurological diseases. Kawahara was well versed in many European neurological journals and writings and incorporated the essence of modern European neurology into this textbook. His masterpiece in neurology is the first description of brother cases worldwide of X-linked recessive spinal and bulbar muscular atrophy (SBMA) in 1897. Later, both basic research and clinical study were developed by researchers mainly at Nagoya University, and the pathophysiology of SBMA was clarified; eventually, disease-modifying therapy was first approved in Japan. Akira Takahashi, who recognized Kawahara's contributions and valued him as a founder of Japanese neurology, should also be appreciated.