Chinese-style medicine in Japan

Abstract

Chinese-style medicine became the dominant style of medicine in Japan from the period of early state-building in the fifth century CE onwards. The history of Chinese-style medicine in Japan can be divided into three periods, which also constitute the main subsections of this chapter. These periods are: early encounters with Chinese-style medicine and initial adaptations; the development of autonomous medical traditions and the decline and revival of Chinese-style medicine in modern Japan. Medical ideas and practices reflect those in China but doctors and scholars in Japan developed independent and unique approaches. In the early modern era, mainly from the seventeenth century onwards, European medical ideas were also adapted and integrated into Japanese medicine, resulting in an even more hybrid system of medicine. Chinese-style medicine has been called Kanpō 漢方 (Han Chinese Formulas) since the middle of the nineteenth century. Today, Kanpō medicine is accepted as complementary medicine.