95. Japanese herb remedies

Dokudami (Houttuynia cordata) is growing thick in my garden.

I know the humid summer is about to come.

《Dokudami in my garden.》

It is one of three traditional herb remedies in Japan along with Genno-shoko (Geranium thunbergii) and Senburi (Swertia japonica).

Dokudami prevails all over Japan and have strong smell.

It is the so-called weed, that is, the unwanted plant which grows persistently one after another. Because of this persistence and smell, it is disliked, sometimes hated, by many Japanese.

I was so surprised when I found it in a botanical garden in Britain. It grew modestly in northern climate and was seemingly appreciated.

《Goshiki-dokudami in a botanical garden in Japan.》

When I was a child I didn’t like its smell, but now I don’t dislike it.

Once leaves are picked up and dried, its odor changes into a scent. Last year I made lotion with those leaves to use as an insect repellent. It is said to be effective for pimples, rash, and hair growth.

The washed and dried leaves could be infused to make a medical herbal tea, which are used as diuretics, laxatives, lowering blood pressure, and so on. Dokudami, when used as medical herbal tea, is called ju-yaku (十薬), where ju means ten and this herb had been said to be effective for as many as ten kinds of disorders.

Genno-shoko (Geranium thunbergii) keeps the guts healthy, that is, stops diarrhea, works as laxative and improve digestion.  It is stipulated in the Japanese pharmacopoeia. Sometimes the tea is used as gargles for tonsillitis and stomatitis, as well as put into bath to warm the body.

《Genno-shoko will have flowers in summer.》

The last one, Senburi (Swertia japonica) is effective for loss of appetite, indigestion, nausea and so on. Its strong bitterness stimulates the guts. The tincture has been said to be effective for hair growth, especially for patchy hair loss, and used to be commercially available. However I haven’t examined its efficacy. The sen means one thousand and buri(furu as a verb) means to shake. Thus, senburi means “it has strong bitterness even after it was shook ,or immersed in the hot water, thousand times.

They are not kampo medicine, but Japan’s traditional herbal medicine.

Ancient people found efficacy in plants close to their living space.

94. Daranisuke, a traditional drug in Japan

When I went to Mt. Yoshino as in my blog of April 12, I found a shop selling “Daranisuke”.

After coming back home I looked for what Daranisuke was. When I enter Daranisuke on my computer a series of Chinese characters of “陀羅尼助” appeared.

《Daranisuke shop in Mt. Yoshino》

It is a traditional folk drug effective for diarrhea, loss of appetite, indigestion, overeating, hangover and the like.

It contains Amur cork tree (Phellodendron amurense; Ohbaku in Japanese) and sometimes Genno-shoko (Geranium thunbergii) and great yellow gentian (Gentiana lutes).

Darani (or dharani, 陀羅尼) is long Buddhist mantras.

Wikipedia explains that Buddhist monks put this bitter drug into their mouth to prevent drowsiness.

According to a book, back to the 7th century, there was no borderline between science and philosophy or religion. The Buddhist priests had worked as a medical specialist as well. They prayed, purified the patients and prescribed medicine. The Daranisuke had been carried by Shugen-so (修験僧, mountain monks) as regular medicine.

Other than Daranisuke, Japan has great many of fork drugs with traditional formula. Each of them has long history and most of them consists of herbal medicine based on Kampo drug or TCM.

Some of them are commercially available and used by many people even now.

Seiro-gan (正露丸) had been a famous medication for diarrhea and  toothache. Until recently it has been household medicine and many people depended on it. Asian tourists to Japan buy it for souvenirs.

Ryukaku-san (龍角散) became so popular in the COVID-19 pandemic that it sold out all over Japan at that time. It is fine powder formulation without sugar and effective for coughing and clearing the throat.

《My favorite Ryukaku-San has tablet and candy formulas as well.》

Shiun-ko (紫雲膏) is an ointment effective for inflammation of the skin. When I get a boil I go to a drugstore to buy it. It is more effective than chemical drugs.

《When I get mosquito bite, Kinkan is the first choice.》

More than fifty years ago my mother always carried a packet of Jintan (仁丹) with her. I believe every Japanese in those days took it very often.

It was a tiny ball about two to three millimeters in diameter and had silver coating. It tasted bitter and had peculiar aroma. I, as a child, didn’t like it but whenever my mom took it I asked her to give me one.

Later, when I was about ten years old, plum taste jintan appeared. It was palatable, like sweets rather than medicine. I carried it anywhere like my mom carried the original jintan.

Now, searching it in the internet, I found it contained various herbal medicine and supposed to be not only for refreshing, but effective for bad breath, motion sickness, hangover, nausea and so on. I suppose it is just like a mint tablet nowadays.

I like to go to drugstores when I travel overseas to find medicine that cannot be seen in Japan.

Why don’t you try to find unique medicine when traveling abroad?

93. Qi（気）, ketsu（血）, sui （水） and pollen allergy

The pollen allergy season is ending 😚

Those who have Japanese cypress pollen allergy plus ceder pollen allergy have had to wear masks for more than three months.

The allergy symptoms differ person to person.

Some have running nose, some have itchy eyes,  some can’t stop sneezing, and so on🤧

According to TCM (traditional Chinese medicine) specialists, this difference in the symptoms is due to the qi（気）-ketsu（血）-sui（水） balance, which I mentioned in my previous blog about kampo medicine.

The qi, ketsu, and sui circulate inside our bodies and their balance is essential to keep health.

The qi（気） is not substance but something circulating inside our bodies to revitalize our lives.

The Chinese character for ketsu （血）means blood and the ketsu is almost equal to blood (but precisely different) and that for sui（水） means water and the sui means body fluid circulating and existing inside our bodies.

Back to the allergy symptoms, they are classified into two types in general : the first one is characterized by hotness and dryness especially in the upper body, like itching skin and eye problems, the second one by the accumulation of body fluids (that is, sui) like running nose and tears as well as nasal congestion. Both of these come from the imbalance of the said, ketsu, and sui.

When we are younger and have no health concern, this theory sounds like a myth.

However, once we get some disorders, even if they are minor ones, we realize the existence of qi, ketsu, and sui, and the theory is well understood firsthand.

That is because the TCM had been founded on ancient people’s experiences.

92. Bamboo shoots mixed rice

Spring vegetables in general have bitter taste and peculiar aroma.

Examples include Japanese parsley (mitsuba in Japanese), Japanese butternut scape (fukinotou), and rape blossoms.

Among others takenoko is loved by everyone.

The takenoko is a shoot or sprout of a bamboo tree and highly valued especially in spring. It is pungent as it is. To make it eatable, it should be boiled in alkali water.

It takes a lot of time and effort, that makes spring takenoko more valued.

《Fresh takenoko is sometimes sold with rice bran to be boiled with.》

《Commercially available boiled takenoko.》

The most well-known dish is takenoko gohan, rice cooked with sliced takenoko. When I get the boiled takenoko I cook it by myself.

《I made takenoko rice again this year.》

By cooking with rice, the aroma from vegetables moves to rice and it makes the rice more delicious.

《Takenoko tempura and a commercially available lunch box consisting of takenoko rice and cherry flower rice.》

The other day, I found takenoko gyoza, steamed dumpling with minced pork.

《Gyoza containing a piece of takenoko in it.》

Spring comes to us not only by sight but also with scent and taste.

91. Cherry trees in the nature

When cherry blossoms start blooming, everyone gets busy making a plan for O-HANAMI （お花見）, cherry blossom viewing🌸

Some have a party under a cherry tree, some take a walk quietly along cherry blossom lane, and some go traveling from south to north following the Cherry Blossom Front.

There are numerous ways to appreciate cherry flowers.

《My father’s favorite place for cherry viewing.》

However, it is difficult to arrange the perfect viewing plan, because cherry blossoms bloom only for a week. Further, during that week the weather changes so frequently. The temperature goes up and down, in the past we had heavy snow, this year a storm scattered flowers.

Usually we have only a few days of desirable weather for o-hanami.

Further, the flowering day differs year to year.

In some year the blooming starts in the middle of March and in some year in April.  It is very difficult to predict the blooming timing beforehand.

So, organizing a trip to see cherry blossoms is like a bet.

Actually I have lost the bet several times so far. In a year I joined a bus tour to see cherry blossoms with Mt. Fuji, but no flowers to be seen at a famous viewing spot because it was too early for the flowers😥

However, I won the bet this year 🤗

The other day I went to Mt. Yoshino, Nara prefecture, to see the famous Senbon-zakura （千本桜）. It literally means one thousand cherry trees, while it is said there are as many as thirty thousand cherry trees on Mt.Yoshino. I was very lucky to be able to see the pink cloud of cherry blossoms. Furthermore, the weather was perfect☀️

《Every spring Mt. Yoshino is covered with pink flowers.》

Most of the cherry trees in urban area are artificially hybridized species, which have planted about 50 to 60 years ago. They all have the same gene, that is why they bloom all at once in the same area.

However, the artificially made species are said to live as short as human lifespan, that is 80 years.

In fact, many trees we see in parks and school grounds in Tokyo are weakening, with some of the branches being cut down because of illness, some trees fell down after a storm.

《There are a lot of temples on Mt. Yoshino.》

On the other hand, the cherry trees in Mt. Yoshino were planted about 1300 years ago. It means they have been flowering more than one thousand years.

Wild cherries live quite a long life.

《Shidare-zakura in Hase temple, Nara.》

《Old temples make cherry blossoms look more exotic.》

《For those who missed o-hanami, have a cup of cherry tea and cherry sweets at home.》

I hope the long-lived cherry trees will be planted in the urban area and we could appreciate the cherry blossoms in the long future.

90. Japan’s Pioneering Flight to Europe （訪欧大飛行）

On July 25th 1925, two airplanes named Hatsukaze（初風, meaning First Wind） and Kochikaze（東風, East Wind）flied off Yoyogi parade ground, current Yoyogi park in Tokyo to Europe🛩️

For each plane, a pilot and an engineer were on board: for Hatsukaze, Hiroshi Abe and Syun-ichiro Shinohara; and for Kochikaze, Kazuhiko Kawachi and Shohei Katagiri, who is my mother’s father.

《My grandfather, Shohei Katagiri.》

Making flight over Asia and Siberia, they landed on Moscow on August 23, then Berlin, Strasburg, Brussel, London, Paris, Lyon, and finally on Rome, October 27th. It took them 95 days in total and the net flying time was 116 hours and 21minutes.

At that time, newspaper agents had power and money so much that they tried to possess aircrafts competitively and launched postal transport business. Their ambition became bigger and bigger until one of them, The Asahi Shimbun Company purchased two French planes, Breguet 19A2.

On the other hand my grandfather had learned machine production and flight engineering in France.

In 1925 engine performance of aircrafts had been poor and undependable. Further, large-scale maps were hard to obtain.

I suppose the flight was like Human Exploration of Mars nowadays.

At the stake of the company’s dignity and a lot of costs it was planned meticulously, while they asked Gods for success.

The difference between their flight and current Mars exploration was that the former was  welcomed by many human beings, who admired their achievements very much.

According to books which have documented the whole story of this Pioneering Flight, they had faced a great many of accidents during flight as well as landing and staying at unknown places.

《Reference books: Asahi-Shimbun Hohou Daihikou I and II, written by Maema Takanori》

Once they reached the final destination, Rome, the planes were disassembled and brought back to Japan by train and ship accompanied by the four members. I don’t know if the planes was rebuilt in Japan🙄

Following to their achievement, in 1937 a Japan-made airplane, named Kamikaze （神風, meaning Divine Wind) flew from Tachikawa, Tokyo to Croydon, London. The net flying time was 51 hours 19 minutes, the fastest in those days. And in 1939, The Mainichi Newspaper Company made a round-the-world flight with Japanese-made aircraft (however, the route was partly altered because the World War II had broken out).

That is why I translated houou daihikou （訪欧大飛行, literally, Grand Flight Visiting Europe） by Hatsukaze and Kochikaze as Pioneering Flight to Europe.

My grandfather died of flight accident seven years later.

My mother had told me little about him and I hadn’t fully informed about his achievements until her passing. The above photo was presented by my ancle after her death.

That is probably because she was only four years old when her father had passed away. And he, as an airplane engineer, had been busy and away from home so often. She would have had little memories of him and understood little about his achievements.

After my mother’s death there was an exhibition at Yokohama marking the 80th year of the Great Flight. There, I met him being photographed.

Thanks to the internet, I can meet my grandfather and know his achievements on the screen.

However, what I am interested in most is what he saw and how he felt in Siberia and European countries a hundred years ago.

Without GPS, without radar, only geographical features and lights of the cities guided the two plane.

Didn’t they feel scared? Did they enjoy flying? How they felt relieved after landing safely.

I have questions after questions if I could meet my grandfather.

《Silver models of Hatsukaze and Kochikaze》

《A plastic model of Kamikaze, presented by Mr. Mizuno.》

89. Tokyo Tanuki vs. London Fox

According to some web sites, traditional rakugo stories account as many as 800.

While, only a limited number of them are being performed today.

One of my favorite program is Tanuki.

Tanuki（狸）, a raccoon dog, is a mammal indigenous to the Far East.

In Japan it frequently appears in children’s stories, fantasy novels or mythologies along with fox.

In such stories both the fox and tanuki trick people by turning their figure into people, animals or items.

Generally foxes are evil, while tanuki good-natured and humorous, otherwise, foxes frequently turn into beautiful ladies while tanuki middle aged men having a pot belly.

In both instances, their identity would be revealed as their tails appear under the clothes.

In the rakugo program of Tanuki, a kid tanuki was captured and bullied by human children. Then a man came and helped the tanuki to get away. The tanuki returned his home and reported to his parents about the kind man, then visited the man’s bachelor home at night.

He told gratitude and declared that he would serve the man as a token of thank-you.

The tanuki turned into a human boy and prepared for the breakfast, then turned into paper money and tried to help the man to pay back the debt.

However, the transformation didn’t last for long hours. It required patience for tanuki being other items.

And at last, ……

《You can find a tanuki statue here and there in Japan.》

Several years ago as I watched a TV documentary program I got to know foxes living in London.

They ate food waste at night and raised kids in the big city.

Interestingly in Tokyo and its vicinity tanuki live in the same fashion. They appear after sunset and migrate along railways. About a thousand tanuki reportedly live in the center of Tokyo and some have been witnessed even in the busy area.

I haven’t meet tanuki or observed the tanuki transformation, however, the tanuki exists close to us even now.

《Foxes live mostly in Hokkaido, the northern part in Japan.》

Do the foxes in London transform to cheat people?

《A horror? A mystery? Or a fairy tale? My favorite novel, a tale of fox》