Manuscript on paper, entitled on upper wrapper: "Ono Ranzan Ninjin ko" ["Ono Ranzan's Thoughts about Ginseng"]

18 folding leaves. 8vo (246 x 167 mm.), orig. wrappers, orig. stitching. [Japan]: Meiji.


This appears to be the text of the notes on ginseng recorded by a disciple of Ranzan Ono. We know that Ono's final writings were on this herb, composed on his deathbed.


Ranzan Ono (1729-1810), was considered the "Linnaeus of Japan." He started a school of botanical pharmacology in Kyoto, which, over the years, graduated more than 1000 students. During his long life, Ono travelled throughout Japan, gathering plant specimens and recording botanical remedies. He was familiar with both Chinese and Western texts on herbal medicines. Ono's Honzo komoku keimo [Dictated Compendium of Materia Medica Enlightenment [or] Clarifications on Honzo komoku] (1803-05), was the great Japanese materia medica and classification of plants during the Edo period; it was intended to be a radically new annotation of Shizhen Li's Bencao Gangmu (1596). Many of Ono's writings remained in manuscript, and his lectures were much esteemed and extensively copied. These copies were tightly controlled by the school, and only the students had access to them.


The text provides a history of ginseng in Japan, Korea, and China; its varieties and regions where grown; methods of cultivation; chemical constituents; and medical benefits.


Fine copy.