A brief outline of the history of the pancreatic anatomy.

In the middle of the 18th century, Kouan Kuriyama, a Japanese physician of the Choshu Domain, depicted the anatomy of the human pancreas in a report to his master, Toyo Yamawaki. This report is the first anatomical description of the pancreas in Japan. In the Mediterranean area, the pancreas was apparently first described about 2,000 years before his observation. Although there are quite a few reviews on the history of this complex organ, our brief essay offers a historical outline of the pancreas.