[Medical treatment and folk medicine recorded in "Mimibukuro"]

"Mimibukuro" is a book written by Moriyasu Negishi in the Edo-period. M. Negishi (1737-1815) was a magistrate in the city of Edo. He was very much interested in listening to and recording many kinds of the stories, which were told by various kinds of people, such as public officers, samurais, merchants, doctors, etc. Among the stories of this book, there are found some stories concerning folk medicine, medicinal substances and charms. In this report, I studied such kinds of the stories. As the results of my studies, I have shown that some medicinal stories originated in the old Chinese medical books. Other stories were supposed to have been popular among the people of Edo.