This work was co-translated by Gempaku together with Ryotaku Maeno, Jun'an Nakagawa, Genjo Ishikawa, Hoshu Katsuragawa etc., although Ryotaku's name is absent from the published edition. The events leading up to the publication of the work are described in detail in a later work by Gempaku, his Rangaku Kotohajime, where he states that in March 1771, Gempaku, Ryotaku and others observed the dissection of the body of a criminal executed at Honegahara in the Senju district of Edo. Comparing their findings with the Anatomische Tabellen, a Dutch translation of a work on anatomy by the German Johann Adam Kulmus, they were astonished at its exactitude, and undertook to do a Japanese translation, which they achieved after three and a half years of indescribable labor. This translation was published under the title Kaitai-shinsho. Volume 1 contains plates illustrating the internal organs, and volumes 2-4 contains the commentary to these, translated into kambun style prose.
　　The Kaitai-shinsho not only contributed greatly to the advancement of medicine in Japan, it also stimulated a wider interest in Rangaku or Dutch studies, and in this sense too it is a landmark work of classic translation.