Harikikgaki

Pink Tentacle has an interesting post on the Harikikgaki.

Q: Wat dat?

A: The Harikikgaki was a medical book written in 1568. It was written in Osaka. The author is unknown. The book talks about acupuncture and herbal remedies. And it talks about tiny creatures inside the body that cause disease.

In other words, the Harikikgaki talks about germs.

But wait.

Not only does the book talk about germs. It illustrates and names them!

Here, for example, is Kagemushi.

And here is his friend, Koseu:

Koseu wears a hat.  The hat protects him against medicine.  Koseu can speak, and he likes to drink sweet sake.

Here are two more friends:

The fellow on the left is Haishaku.  He lives in the lungs.  He likes fish and spicy foods.

On the right is Kakuran-no-mushi.  He lives in the stomach.  Sometimes he travels up into the mouth.

Finally, two more:

Kiukan (left) lives in the chest.  At meal times he gets excited and runs around.

Kishaku (right) loves oily food.  The best medicine against him is tiger stomach.

Okay, okay.  The author/illustrator of the Harikikgaki had a great imagination, and these “germs” maybe aren’t exactly “real”.  But they are pretty cool, don’t you think?

The Roman Marcus Terentius Varro described germs rather more soberly in his book, On Agriculture, in 36 BC:

 ”…there are certain tiny creatures which cannot be seen by the eyes, which float in the air, and enter the body through the mouth and nose, and there cause serious diseases.”

But Varro’s book didn’t have pictures.