ZŌ, Han 曾槃 (or SŌ Senshun 曾占春).

Manuscript on paper, titled “Kōwa jinpu” 皇和蕈譜 [“Catalogue of Mushrooms of Our August Japan”].

43 folding leaves. 8vo (240 x 170 mm.), orig. patterned semi-stiff wrappers with orig. title-slip, old stitching. [Japan]: [1791] (date of Preface).

A rare manuscript of Japanese natural studies, or the “learning of roots and herbs” (honzōgaku 本草學) by Zō, doctor and botanist (1758-1834). It was one of the major intellectual trends of the Tokugawa period, with a large portion of the educated classes taking an interest in the topic. Initially inspired by the Chinese encyclopedic work Bencao gangmu 本草綱目 [Systematic Materia Medica], Japanese natural studies came with time to focus on the natural environment of Japan in contradistinction to China. Our manuscript, explicitly concerned with the mushrooms of “Our August Japan,” is a case in point.

It contains descriptions of 129 mushrooms, divided into categories: wood mushrooms, ground mushrooms, bamboo mushrooms, wood-ear mushrooms, and poisonous mushrooms. Our author lists alternative names for a mushroom in question, notes where it grows, and describes its appearance. Literary references are given in many of the entries. Curiously, despite the manuscript’s title, Zō Han quotes from Chinese local gazetteers, which often contained lists of local products.

There is an appendix, which contains four essays. discusses, in turn, different names of the mushroom in various parts of Japan; the etymology of the character kinoko 蕈, meaning mushroom; the method of ascertaining the poisonous character of a mushroom; and a prescription for breaking down the poison.

Zō was the author of Seikei zusetsu [An Illustrated Book of Agricultural Things], the great agricultural and botanical work issued in the early years of the 19th century. It is an encyclopedic survey of all the agricultural products and practices of Japan. He served the Satsuma fiefdom under the lord Shimazu Shigehide

Our text was never printed, circulating only in manuscript form.

❧ Ueno Masuzō 上野益三, Nihon hakubutsugakushi 日本博物学史 (Tokyo: Heibonsha, 1973), p. 416.