1. Production Policies of the 8th Shogun of Tokugawa Shogunate, TOKUGAWA Yoshimune

Starting in the Edo period, a significant volume medicines, sugar, and other products were imported, resulting in an enormous drain on Japan’s gold and silver reserves. This led Yoshimune to institute a number of policies in an attempt to create a framework for domestic self-sufficiency, which contributed to enhanced interest in Japanese flora and fauna nationwide. Yoshimune’s production policies included the following four points.

1. Dispatch of Saiyakushi—harvesting medical herbs

The Shogunate dispatched agents throughout Japan to find and harvest medical herbs and other useful materials. These saiyakushi also taught local people about plants that had helpful properties, which enhanced general interest in flora and fauna by ordinary people.

Show here is the beginning of this book, which summarizes Masakatsu’s travels between 1720 and 1753, when he harvested medicinal herbs while traveling between 140 and 190 days per year. The next page notes the detail of each trip, such as date of departure, place of collection, and date of return to Edo. Masakatsu was held in high regard by Yoshimune and was dispatched nearly 30 times while also being the administrator of a herbal garden in Komaba and assistant administrator of the Fukiage garden at Edo castle.

Shoshu saiyakuni is the manuscript of Masakatsu’s diary from 1729, when he was harvesting herbs in the Iga, Yamato, and Kii regions. (present-day Mie, Shiga, and Wakayama Prefectures). In this section, he indicates that he picked chikusetsuninjin (panax japonicus) and katakuri (erythronium japonicum) a place called Kozue (part of present-day Nara Prefecture) and sent them to Edo. His duties included not just investigating local flora and fauna but also collecting specific species of plants. Masakatsu wrote a detailed account of his work in his diary, and quite a few copies exist today, including transcriptions.

2. Nationwide Survey of Flora and Fauna

Between 1735 and 1738, the Shogunate conducted nationwide survey of production and required all domains to report their yield of plants and animals, irrespective of their use.

In cases where it was difficult to identify a plant simply from its name, the reporting domain was required to submit an illustration or detailed explanation. An example of this is shown here. The Shogunate herbalists could not figure out what isago was, so they ordered the domain to provide an illustration. (See Figure 1). Figure 2 shows an additional explanation of Figure 1. From this report, it became clear that isago was another name for the touch-me-not (impatiens textorii).

（Figure 1）

（Figure 2）

3. Surveying Flora and Fauna of Foreign Origin

The Shogunate also wished to determine which plants and animals for which Chinese names were known had a corresponding species in Japan. Actual specimens were ordered from China, and surveys were conducted using these materials to determine whether the species existed or not in Japan.

Yoshimune’s government obtained herbs from Korea via the Tsushima domain. Shown in this picture is scutellaria baicalensis, a plant not indigenous to Japan, which bloomed and bore fruit at Edo castle. Seihaku was a surgeon who was hired by the Shogunate to research on animals, vegetables, and minerals. He directed the survey mentioned above from 1735 to 1738. Shown is an abridged transcription of Seihaku’s Kyuen Ishu (九淵遺珠, held by Kyou Shooku (杏雨書屋) and the Iwase Bunko Library).

4. Domestication of Foreign Plants

The Edo period was the domestication of medical herbs and other useful plants that were brought to Japan from other countries. For example, it took more than ten years to successfully cultivate Asian ginseng. And although it took much longer, sugar cane was eventually domesticated as well.

TAMURA Ransui, another Edo-period naturalist, tried to grow Asian ginseng after receiving the fruit of this plant from the Shogunate in 1737 and compiled the results of his work into this book. The illustration shows an Asian ginseng with three-pronged branch that bore fruit five years after planting. There are few copies of this work remaining, because the printing block was lost in a fire. Chosen ninjin kosakuki (朝鮮人参耕作記) is an enlarged version of the original that was published later and remains in circulation.

2. Growing Interest in Living Things

During the Edo period, many monographs treating specific kinds of plants, treatises on bird breeding, and natural histories of foreign flora and fauna appeared. Encyclopedias for haiku poets were also published.

This is an early work on bird breeding that gives detailed explanations on the breeding of 125 domestic birds. It was published in three volumes, one of which features an introduction to more than 20 methods for hunting birds. This section shows how to place nets and station people to catch the birds. On the left-hand page, relevance to the weather and desirable topography are described.

Shown here is a page describing how catfish were originally unknow in the Kanto region but inhabited Edo after a great flood in 1728. Nitto Gyofu is the first encyclopedia of fish in Japan, and was originally written in 1719. It was revised three times, and there are significant differences between editions. These pages are from the last edition in 1741, which includes illustrations and notes on 338 breeds of fish and shellfish. The author was a practicing physician in Edo, but little is known of his career.

Although many encyclopedias of whales appeared during the Edo period, the most accurate line originates in a pictorial encyclopedia made between 1651 and 1680, during the reign of the 4th Shogun, Ietsuna. Shown here is a manuscript from that line, which includes 11 species of whales and dolphins. The illustration is an anatomical drawing of a bowhead whale. Anatomical drawings of animals other than whales were rare during the Edo period. But whales were observed in great detail, because people caught and utilized every part of whales, from the head to the tail.

During the Edo period, whaling bases could be found all around Japan, and people actively hunted whales in coastal waters. Shown here is an illustration of a whale hunt near Ikitsuki Island in Hizen no Kuni (present-day Nagasaki Prefecture). Whaling in Japan was performed by trapping whales in nets. The illustration shows people harpooning a trapped and immobilized whale. When people caught a whale, they used every part, from the baleen to the bone, with nothing wasted.

The butterfly shown in the image on the left is an indigenous Japanese species known as luehdorfia. This is the oldest known illustration of a luehdorfia and the most accurate one from the Edo period. This book is a collection of sketches of 90 animals and 377 plants by Birushanaya, a Buddhism priest from Yoro, Mino (present-day Gifu Prefecture). As shown in the image, each page of this book includes numerous flora and fauna, but the salient characteristics of each are captured most accurately. According to the notes, these illustrations were drawn between 1723 and 1748.

As can be seen in the image, the headword for each entry in this horticultural encyclopedia is outdented. The arrow indicates what is considered the first known incidence of the name habotan or “flowering cabbage” in a Japanese book. This lesser-known encyclopedia is extremely rare, and although there are no illustrations, the descriptions are quite detailed. The title indicates that this is the initial volume (上巻, jokan) of a set, but the subsequent volumes were apparently never published. Even though this volume has only 209 articles, it is a valuable resource on horticultural varieties from the 18th century.

This is an illustration of a Burmese Peacock-Pheasant, whose habitat stretches from China’s Hainan Island to India. Records state that this bird first came to Japan aboard a Qing dynasty ship in 1736. This book is one of two illustrated handscrolls containing 100 species of birds drawn by Yu Zengsan at the order of the Kangxi Emperor of the Qing dynasty. First imported to Japan in 1737, they are known by the title Hyakucho zu or One Hundred Birds. Although this work is valued as an encyclopedia of birds that inhabit China, some of the illustrations are of dubious coloration. Only a few copies have survived and it is said that there are no longer any copies in China.

Shown on the right-hand side of this image is a Ryukyu minashigai, a rare tropical snail. Author GOTO Rishun was a practicing physician and near the end of his life was vice chancellor of a medical school called Seijukan (躋寿館). This series of six volumes is an illustrated encyclopedia of flora and fauna, but the only parts that are extant today are a section introducing 288 species of fish and 68 species of shellfish. HORI Naotada (堀直格), Lord of the Shinano Suzaka domain (present-day Nagano Prefecture), inscribed his name and the date of the manuscript on the left-hand page.

The bird on the right-hand page is a hill myna and on the left-hand page is a parrot. In 1758, eight foreign birds, including four parakeets and a golden pheasant, were shown at Dotonbori in Osaka. These birds were the pets of NAGAI Naoyuki (永井直行), former lord of the Takatsuki domain, who was deceased at the time. The show was a tremendous success and in the autumn of that year was given again in Edo, where it was once again well received. This book contains illustrations of 10 foreign birds and appears to have been published in time to take advantage of the show’s popularity. The author was a physician from Kyoto.

The Yakuhin’e (薬品会) was an exhibition of animals, plants, and minerals that started in 1757, sponsored by HIRAGA Gennai (平賀源内) and hosted by TAMURA Ransui (田村藍水). It’s reputation was such that it travelled to other venues, including Osaka in 1760 and Kyoto in 1761. This book was published as a catalog of the Osaka exhibition. The left-hand page has illustrations of two birds, the rightmost of which is a dollarbird from Morino Yakuen of Yamato no Kuni (present-day Nara Prefecture). The note says that it is a female dollarbird, however the leftmost bird seems to be a different species.

During the Edo period, products from the Ryukyu (present-day Okinawa Prefecture) and Satsunan (present-day Kagoshima Prefecture) Islands were exported by the Satsuma domain, and written works about these products started to appear in the latter part of the 18th century. This material comes from that period and includes about 720 species of plants. The image is of one of the earliest known illustrations of a banana.

This book is the only one known to have been published about breeding foreign birds, and no other libraries are known to hold a copy of this work. The image shows a page on how to breed peacocks, and it also says that people in Edo era not only kept mature peacocks but bred them to raise peachicks. It seems that a large number of foreign bird species were bred in Japan at that time. This book includes explanations on as many as 65 species in total. The name Josaisanjin is a pseudonym of OKUBO Jinshiro (大久保甚四郎), a high-ranking samurai who was known as a powerful supporter of the famous ukiyo-e artist SUZUKI Harunobu (鈴木春信).

Between 1764 and 1771, breeding pet rodents was quite popular in the Kansai region. As shown in the illustration, rodents with spotted or dappled coats were bred. This is the first book published on breeding rodents. The author is from Osaka, although he used a pseudonym and his real name is unknown. But insofar as it contains the addresses of five people in Osaka who sold rodents, it is possible that the author was one of them.

This illustration of a bonsai in which five species of citrus were grafted onto one tree was drawn in 1776. The author was apparently a gardener in Edo who worked for feudal lords or members of the Imperial family. This book includes as many as 160 species of plants, implying that these species were already popular in the latter 18th century. It seems to have been intended to be part of a comprehensive illustrated encyclopedia of horticultural plants but was never completed. No other copies of this book are known to be extant.

Insofar as the mention of plants and animals was an integral part of haiku, this encyclopedia was edited to target haiku poets. On the right-hand page are illustrations of cotton and pentapetes phoenicea L. (a kind of plant), while on the left-hand page are sample haiku. This book introduces 162 species in total, and although that number is not particularly significant, the illustrations of each flower are highly accurate, and there are sample haiku for almost every species.

Shown here is an illustration of an astragalus. This material was authored about 70 years after the above-mentioned Haikaina no shiori and includes not just illustrations but also regional names, morphology, and flowering seasons for 62 species of plants but with no haiku. The author, KATO Ryozaemon Seitoku, is from the Bizen Okayama domain. Since there are notes on medical effects, he might have been a physician.

This page shows the author’s name and an illustration of a shepherd’s purse. This is an autograph manuscript for the second volume of the above-mentioned Korekoregusa. There are 61 plants illustrated in this draft. This volume was also intended to be a reference for haiku poets but without examples. It was never published.

The left-hand page shows descriptions of a slow loris and a prosimian, which were imported in 1779, as well as a young alligator or crocodile imported in 1780. (Indicated by arrows). This book is a transcribed copy by ONO Ranzan of a book authored by SHIZUKI Tadao, taking excerpts from Dutch and Chinese books as well as recording the import of birds and animals at Nagasaki.

*Bankoku kanki*

(from the collection of the Toyo Bunko)

Shown here on the right-hand page is an illustration of cocoon harvesting by KATSUKAWA Shunsho, and on the left-hand page is one of silkworms laying eggs on seat paper by KITAO Shigemasa. This book is one of the finest on silkworms, showing the processes involved from breeding of the silkworms to production of silk fabric in twelve nishiki-e (color woodblock prints). During the mid-1780’s, any number of color woodblock prints of flora and fauna were published. Several years after this book came out, a famous trilogy by KITAGAWA Utamaro—Ehon musierami (画本虫撰), Momo chidori (百千鳥), and Siohi no tsuto (潮干のつと) —was published.

This is one of the earliest pictorial encyclopedias of vegetation in Ezo (present-day Hokkaido) and includes 58 sketches by KOBAYASHI Gennosuke, who was a retainer of the Shogunate and drew many sketches of plants during an expedition to explore Ezo in 1792. This material was transcribed and collated into a book by KURIMOTO Tanshu (栗本丹洲), a physician who served the Shogunate. Shown here is a rugosa rose found in Sakhalin. There are notes in different hands. Those in black on the right-hand page are ascribed to Kobayashi, and the red ones to Tanshu, while the black ones on the left-hand page were added later SAKA Tankyu (坂丹邱), another physician who served the Shogunate. The National Diet Library also holds another transcription of this book by KATSURAGAWA Kuniakira (Hoshu) (桂川国瑞 (甫周)), <寄別11-2>.

This book contains articles on 213 varieties of shellfish that were found in other books. As shown in the notes at the top of the page, one feature of this book is the many quotes of waka poetry from anthologies such as Fuboku wakasho (夫木和歌抄) and Man’yoshu (万葉集). The author, HOTTA Masaatsu, was a naturalist who also served the Shogunate as a junior coucillor. He is known to have written several books, including Kanbun kin fu (観文禽譜), Kanbun ju fu (観文獣譜), and Hotta kin fu, but Kanbun kin fu (堀田禽譜) is the only one book extant today. This copy was transcribed by ONO Ranzan.

*Kanbun kai fu*

(from the collection of the Toyo Bunko)

Shown here is what is apparently the oldest known illustration of a type of dace (Tribolodon nakamurai A. Doi & Shinzawa) that was then called a hounaga. Although Japanese fishermen have long considered it to be a different species from other Japanese dace, this fact was not verified scientifically until the 1960’s. The author of this work, KAMEI Kyoju, was a village headman from Shibuya Miyamasucho, Edo, who accompanied a retainer of the Shogunate named KANAZAWA Sehee (金沢瀬兵衛) on an expedition to Echigo (present-day Ishikawa Prefecture) in 1800. This book is an illustrated encyclopedia of 60 types of vegetation, five animals, and two minerals that were found during the journey.

3. Three Works by MATSYDAIRA Yoritaka, lord of the Takamatsu domain

HOSOKAWA Shigekata (細川重賢), lord of the Kumamoto domain and MATSUDAIRA Yoritaka, lord of the Takamatsu domain, are particularly well known from among 18th-century daimyo for having produced numerous works on natural history. In this section, we present three illustrated encyclopedias produced by Matsudaira Yorikata.

The collection of the Kagawa Museum includes four encyclopedias that were edited by MATSUDAIRA Yoritaka (松平頼恭): Shurin zu (衆鱗図), Shukin gafu (衆禽画譜), Shasei gacho (写生画帖), and Shuho gafu (衆芳画譜). The most famous of these is Shurin zu, which includes 652 illustrations, many of which were transcribed into KURIMOTO Tanshu’s Gyokai fu, mentioned below. Many of these illustrations were transcribed numerous times and as a consequence are widely known.

The National Diet Library also holds a transcript of Shasei gacho.

This series comprises two volumes, containing 128 illustrations. Shown here is an illustiron of a white-banded taskfish, which was transcribed from Shurin zu. One identifying characteristic of this illustration is the way both pelvic fins are shown forming a dogleg. Tanshu’s illustrations of fish and shellfish include a large number of transcriptions from Shurin zu. The following material is also one.

Shown in this illustration is a hikurage (tamoya bursaria)—a species of jellyfish that inhabits the Seto Inland Sea and other areas near Kitakyushu. This jellyfish is highly venomous and has arms that leave painful, burning stings. For this reason, its Japanese name literally means “fire jellyfish”—hi (fire) + kurage (jellyfish). This is an accurate transcription of the illustration in Shurin zu. Like the previous material, this book was illustrated by Kurimoto Tanshu and contains 25 illustrations, 19 of which originate from Shurin zu.

This is a transcription of Shasei zucho, compiled by Yoritaka and including 175 illustrations. Figure 1 on the left shows bamboo, while figure 2 on the right shows different varieties of azaleas, including a fine petal azalea. The Takamatsu domain sent the original book to Nagasaki so HIRASAWA Gengai (平沢元愷), a retainer of the Shogunate and scholar of Chinese studies could verify the names of these plants with scholars from Qing-dynasty China. Questions and answers were also annotated in this material. The red tag in Figure 1 shows a question from Gengai, next to which is the answer from Qing.

植物写生図帖

植物写生図帖

4. Materials by ONO Ranzan

ONO Ranzan was a leading specialist in traditional Chinese pharmacology (Bencao) and natural historian who lived during the Edo period. The National Diet Library was the grateful recipient of a variety of materials, including autograph manuscripts, that were donated by Ranzan’s descendants. The following is a compilation of materials from his diary, letters, lecture notes, draft essays, and calligraphic works.

ONO Ranzan was born in 1729 and studied under MATSUOKA Gentatsu (松岡玄達) before establishing a private school in Kyoto called Shuhoken (衆芳軒). He had a strong reputation as a scholar, in 1799 he was called by the Shogunate to teach at the Igakukan, a school of medicine run by the Shogunate, in Edo, where he stayed until he died at the age of 82 in 1810. He educated more than 1,000 students and was perhaps the single more significant contributor during the Edo period to the study of Bencao pharmacology and natural history. A year before his death, he had this picture painted by Buncho, one of his students.

This letter is dated May 24, 1795, which is actually July 10, 1795, under the modern calendar. The recipient is not shown, but judging from the content, it is likely to have been written to MURAMATSU Hyozaemon (村松標左衛門), a former student of Ranzan’s who lived in Noto. The letter discusses differences between Ranzan himself and his teacher, MATSUOKA Gentatsu (松岡玄達). Although Gentatsu rarely let his students participate in field work and kept many of his theories secret, Ranzan emphasized the importance of field work and openly discussed many of his theories with his students. The letter also reveals the previously unknown fact that Ranzan began his studies with Gentatsu only five years before Gentatsu’s death.

本草綱目草稿 小野蘭山寛政七年書簡下書

本草綱目草稿 小野蘭山寛政七年書簡下書

本草綱目草稿 小野蘭山寛政七年書簡下書

KIMURA Kenkado was an intellectual and a naturalist from Osaka, who seems to have become a student of ONO Ranzan sometime before 1779. This letter of commitment was written in 1784, when Kenkado was named a special research student. The content of this letter is evidence of the existence of strict rules for Ranzan’s students, such as not showing records of lectures to third parties or not publishing original work without permission.

These four volumes were used by Ranzan when lecturing in the Bencao gangmu. As seen in Figure 1, the margins are full of annotations made in both red and black ink. Ranzan sometimes even cut open the edges of double-leaved pages and wrote notes on the obverse of the pages. Careful examination of this material shows that Ranzan finalized the manuscript sometime around 1780, but continued to make annotations as he used this document until his death.

This book is an appendix to the above-mentioned Honzo komoku soko and contains variant names of flora and fauna in different dialects. Shown here is Vol. 1, which deals with the names of insects, birds, and other animals. The variant names are arranged in accordance with “iroha” ordering of the Japanese syllabary. Indexes are written in red ink, using man’yogana to show names in ancient Japanese as well as other later ones. This book, too, was most likely used when lecturing and seems to have been finalized sometime before 1801, after which annotations were added.

*Hakubutsu mei fu*

(from the collection of the Toyo Bunko)

This is a record of Ranzan’s lectures on Bencao gangmu in Edo, compiled and edited by his grandson, ONO Mototaka (小野職孝). It might even be more accurate to say that this document is a record of the achievements of Japanese natural history based on the Bencao gangmu. Shown here is the beginning of the series that was published between 1803 and early 1806, comprising 27 books in 48 volumes. Sadly, the printing blocks were lost in the Great Fire of Bunka that consumed much of Edo on April 22, 1806. After Ranzan’s death, Mototaka had new printing blocks carved, but they, too, were lost in another fire.

Although both the original and a second set of printing blocks were lost, two further versions were later published: an enlarged edition and a revised edition. Shown here is the enlarged edition, which included much new material and was printed using movable type made of wood. For example, the section marked by the arrow in the image indicates new material, describing a pelican that was seen in the vicinity of Nakagun in Awa no Kuni (present-day Anan in Tokushima Prefecture). The Lord of the Tokushima domain issued a special order protecting the bird, so it was observed using a telescope.

Shuhoken was the name of a private school established by Ranzan. The section shown here refers to a type of grouse know as a ptarmigan. Although a correction has made it largely illegible, the line indicated by the arrow describes a trip to harvest herbs on Mts. Hakusan and Tateyama. In 1788, the year this book was published, Shuhoken was the victim of a massive fire in Kyoto. Ranzan also wrote other essays such as Suika gyokin kosho (水火魚禽考書) and Nanro zuihitsu (南楼随筆), the autograph manuscripts of which are both in the collection of the Toyo Bunko.

*Shuhoken zuihitsu*

(from the collection of the Toyo Bunko)

*Shuhoken zuihitsu*

(from the collection of the Toyo Bunko)

Ranzan left Kyoto for Edo on March 11, 1799, (April 15, 1799, under the modern calendar) after receiving a request from the Shogunate to teach at a school of medicine in Edo. Figure 1 on the left shows his diary for the day he left Kyoto and describes all the people who came to see him off. Figure 2 on the right comes from the end of the diary and was written on January 2, 1810, (February 5, 1810, under the modern calendar). It explains that fatigue kept him from visiting Edo castle and how he did not even perform New Year’s greetings with acquaintances. Less than a month after this entry, Ranzan passed away on January 27 (March 2) at the age of 82. Although these two pages are both written in classical Chinese, most of the other parts of the diary are written in Japanese.

Taifu no sho Ono Ranzan, vol. 1

ONO Ranzan passed at the age of 82 on January 27, 1810, (March 2 under the modern calendar). According to the annotation, this calligraphy was created in celebration of turning 82. At the time, people in Japan counted their age not from their birthday but from January 1, so this work is likely to have been created on New Year’s Day of 1810. Roughly translated, it says that “there is no better way to save the world than medical science, and no better way to get rid of illness than medicine.”

Ranzan sho ONO Ranzan, vol. 1

According to the annotation, this work was created in 1802, when Ranzan was 74 years old. It says that “a doctor should rely on the prescription, and the prescription should rely on the medicine.”

Ranzan sensei sho ONO Ranzan, vol. 1

The date of this work is unknown. The sentence (草緑三春雨楓丹一夜霜) means …. According to SHIRAI Kotaro (白井光太郎), the seal used here is one that Ranzan reserved for use on what he considered to be well-formed calligraphy.

大父之書

蘭山書

蘭山先生書