Abstract
Objective： We found a letter written by Munenori Yagyu, a warlord and government bureaucrat early in the Edo era. In it, he mentions a medicinal herb garden. The objective of this report is to identify the medicinal herb garden and elucidate the relationship between the garden and Munenori Yagyu through identifying people appearing in the letter.
Methods： The letter, written in cursive by Munenori Yagyu, was first transcribed into text. Based on the contents of the transcribed letter, the people and medicinal herb garden were identified and the relationships between the garden and the people, including Munenori Yagyu, were analyzed.
Results： The contents of the letter suggest that Gen'ya Okamoto, a physician who treated Tokugawa shoguns, played a leading role in planting the Takagamine Medicinal Herb Garden, a government medicinal herb garden located in Kyoto, together with Doju Fujibayashi, who was later assigned as the first administrator of the medicinal herb garden. Munenori Yagyu may also have had an advisory role in the planting of the medicinal herb garden.
Conclusion： Munenori Yagyu's letter was found to suggest his involvement with the few other people identified for planting the Takagamine Medicinal Herb Garden. The letter will be important for elucidating the unclear circumstances of the Tokugawa Shogunate's project of establishing government medicinal herb gardens.
