YOSHIMASU Todo's Philosophy of Medicine:In Comparison with that in Ancient China / 日本東洋医学雑誌

ABSTRACT

YOSHIMASU Todo is one of the greatest practitioners of so called <I>Koiho</I> in the Edo era Japan. There have hardly been any studies, however, on his philosophy of medicine, even though it seems to be a significant background for his medical practice. Accordingly, I would like to consider Todo's philosophy of medicine called manbyo-ichidoku-setsu in comparison with that of Chinese.<BR>I first take up the Chin-shu chapter of the <I>Lu-shi chun-chiu</I>, which he recognized as the source of his theory, to see the philosophy of medicine of cosmic order, the “holistic total”. Then I'll take the other classics of traditional Chinese medicine to clarify their characteristics. Hitherto there has been lack of comparative exploration on Todo's notion with that of Chinese from the view point of philosophy of medicine.<BR>In comparison with that traditional Chinese medicine, we can assert that Todo learned traditional Chinese medicine with its philosophical background, and created further Japan's own characteristic Kampo medicine. Seeing respectively on these two points that are his analysis on each galenical, and his administrations of intensive drugs to reduce “poison” under his manbyo-ichidoku-setsu, we can assert that Todo really is one of the “fathers of Kampo medicine”.