Skull and facial structure components illustrated.
The history of medicine in Japan is a very interesting one, highly influenced by an isolationist stance taken by the Edo government. In the middle of the 16th century, Portuguese traders brought the first beginnings of medicine in Europe over to Japan, and there was a good deal of interest around the scholarly community. However, the Tokugawa family established a cultural stance of distrust of anything western, even when it was better than what they had prior to its arrival.
Diseases were thought to be caused by evil spirits, and the dead body was an impure substance that would contaminate whomever touched it, so it was uncommon that people were willing to undertake even limited dissections.
Personally, I find it amazing and fascinating that Japan started into the age of modern medicine so slowly and yet progressed so quickly, to the point that it now has some of the most innovative therapies and research out there.
From Kaibo Zonshinzu anatomy scrolls by Yasukazu Minagaki, 1819. In Keio University Archives.