2019 Volume 54 Issue 1 Pages 24-30
Tanabeya Medicine, a herbal medicine to treat bleeding at the time of childbirth, as well as to treat bruises, was sold in the Tanabeya Store for over 200 years, since its establishment until the middle of the Meiji Era. We compare formulations and indications, and discuss whether or not this medicine was one of the special elixirs introduced by Yoshihiro Shimadzu as a result of his contributions to the Battle of Sekigahara. The Imai Family’s ancestry letter, in which records show a close relation between Doyo Tanabeya and Yoshihiro Shimadzu, mentions that Yoshihiro initiated Doyo into two elixir formulations: a medicine for wounds such as rupturing of the muscle and fractures, and a medicine for malposition childbearing. The formulation of Tanabeya Medicine was listed in the application letter for a business license issued in 1882. This paralleled that of Yamada-ryu (Yamada School) Decoction, a medicine for wounds acquired during battle, as recorded by some war medicine doctors during the Warring States Period, and for bleeding at the time of childbirth. That is, Tanabeya Medicine was primarily composed of 10 basic ingredients found in Yamada-ryu Decoction plus the addition of cloves, areca nuts and rhubarb, for which the oxytocic action had an effect on muscle and tendon ruptures. The indications of the medicine are consistent with the content of the Imai Family’s ancestry letter. Given that Yoshihiro Shimadzu had a rich knowledge of war medicine, the results suggest that Tanabeya Medicine seems likely to be a special elixir of the Shimadzu Family initiated by Yoshihiro Shimadzu.
