X, A brief history of Botany in old Japan. 



By 



Mitsutaro Shiuai, D.Sc, 



Emeritus Professor, Tokyo Imperial University. 



In tracing the hiatoi-y of botany in Japan we can distinguish three 

 periods, i.e. the pents'ao period, the natural history period, and the 

 scientific botany period. In the pents'ao period which extends from 

 prehistoric times to the end of the fifteenth century, investigations of 

 plants were carried on principally to get the knowledge of their medical 

 uses. In the natural history period which begins from the sixteenth 

 century and ends in 1868, investigations of plants were extended to 

 useful plants other than medicinal plants. In 1868 the Imperial power 

 was restored and the European mode of education was adopted 

 and the arts and sciences of Western nations were introduced 

 to Japan. The science of botany was introduced, its use and value 

 understood, and it has persisted down to the present time. In the 

 following pages we will consider in some detail the principal events 

 relating to the botany which prevailed in old-world Japan, that is in 

 the pents'ao and natural history periods. 



The Pp^nts'ao Peiuod. 



Some primitive methods of curing human diseases might have 

 obtained in prehistoric times, but from lack of records we do not know 

 how they were practised and what sort of drugs were used. The utili- 

 zation of wild and cultivated plants and other natural products must 

 have opened the way to discriminate them and thus the dawn of 

 natural history investigation is to be found in the very remote anti(|uity. 

 It is said Onamuchi and 8ukunahikona invented medicine in the my- 

 thological period in the history of Japan. In 285 in the reign of the 



