Ishida San'yaku

I'm sure people like Momoiro Usagi-san and Tama-san
have already read this news, but...

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/national/news/20040716i407.htm

Basically, there will be an event (Shinsengumi Festa
in Hino), where 30 families will try to make once
again the famous(?) medicine Ishida San'yaku, sold by
Hijikata Toshizo back when he was training kenjutsu
and used by the Shinsengumi. It seems that, till 1948,
the Hijikata family still made that medicine. My only
doubt is the name of the herb: I thought it was
"gyukawa-so", but in the article says "mizosoba". I
wonder if they are the same thing...



Serizawa Kamo



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In a message dated 7/16/2004 2:12:48 PM Eastern Daylight Time, Serizawa Kamo <serizawakamo@...> writes:

>I'm sure people like Momoiro Usagi-san and Tama-san
>have already read this news, but...
>
>http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/national/news/20040716i407.htm
>
>Basically, there will be an event (Shinsengumi Festa
>in Hino), where 30 families will try to make once
>again the famous(?) medicine Ishida San'yaku, sold by
>Hijikata Toshizo back when he was training kenjutsu
>and used by the Shinsengumi. It seems that, till 1948,
>the Hijikata family still made that medicine. My only
>doubt is the name of the herb: I thought it was
>"gyukawa-so", but in the article says "mizosoba". I
>wonder if they are the same thing...
>
>
>
>Serizawa Kamo
>

I've actually been trying to learn more about Ishida Sanyaku and I've come across the same thing. I'm pretty sure that they are one and the same now. There was a site set up by a museum in Kyoto that was in English (no longer available) that also gave the name as "Mizosoba" or "Persicaria thunbergii". A close up picture of the leaf looks exactly like the ones I've seen on some sites that translate the other name as "cowhide grass". I also did a search on Yahoo for "mizosoba" and found some pics of the flowers. It's a beautiful plant when it blooms!

More interestingly, someone recently conducted an experiment to evaluate the powder's effectiveness. I couldn't tell what the outcome of the experiment was though. The site is in Japanese of course and sadly the translation software is only capable of so much. Here's the site:
http://www.tpa-kitatama.jp/shinsengumi/shinsengumi_index.html


-MissBehavin

I wanted to remind people who are already in Japan or going to Japan
soon to continuously visit the board at
http://www.hino-shinsengumi.com where events are announced and
updated daily, Shimada Kai does a good job on maintaining the site.

Also does this mean that to prove our devotion to Hijikata we have
to be test subjects for these recreations of Ishida San'yaku? ^_^

Today, momoiro at the http://www.shinsengumimb.com clarified
Yamazaki's medical background and I was thinking what if......
after practicing in the dojo
Saitou: "Yamazaki, so does Ishida San'yaku really work?"
Yamazaki: "(clears throat) ummm well err...how about another round
of sparring Saitou?"

Yes I've also read the news about Ishida San'yaku today!
The site mentioned by MissBehavin is very interesting.
Appearently, they began the experiment and the result is not yet on the site.

This kind of experiment takes many time and costs a lot they say. To be
continued... so.
They experiment to compare, with and without Sake normaly added to Isida
San'yaku and also drunk when taking this medicine, because of eventually effect of
it.
They chose the Sake which is come from Hino area, made by same method of
those time in order to have approximate one used by Hijikata or Satou family.
( This Sake called "Genroku" is produced by Sawanoi brewer:
http://www.sawanoi-sake.com/)

And the site tells the effect of Isida San'yaku was attested by Ryojun
Matsumoto
in Meiji to have the admission. Because Meiji government prohibited this kind
of "old wives remedy", especially charred one like Isida San'yaku.
They say also, it's difficult to think Ryojun attested it with only his
sympathy for Shinsengumi, considering the political situation of the period.

Tama




[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

In a message dated 7/16/2004 8:03:06 PM Eastern Daylight Time, ktamae@... writes:

>Yes I've also read the news about Ishida San'yaku today!
>The site mentioned by MissBehavin is very interesting.
>Appearently, they began the experiment and the result is not yet on the site.
>
>This kind of experiment takes many time and costs a lot they say. To be
>continued... so.
>They experiment to compare, with and without Sake normaly added to Isida
>San'yaku and also drunk when taking this medicine, because of eventually effect of
>it.
>They chose the Sake which is come from Hino area, made by same method of
>those time in order to have approximate one used by Hijikata or Satou family.
>( This Sake called "Genroku" is produced by Sawanoi brewer:
>http://www.sawanoi-sake.com/)
>
>And the site tells the effect of Isida San'yaku was attested by Ryojun
>Matsumoto
>in Meiji to have the admission. Because Meiji government prohibited this kind
>of "old wives remedy", especially charred one like Isida San'yaku.
>They say also, it's difficult to think Ryojun attested it with only his
>sympathy for Shinsengumi, considering the political situation of the period.
>
>Tama
>
>

Hey Tama, didn't they say at the time that they would allow the Hijikata family to keep producing the medicine if they added something else to it? But the family refused, preferring just to stop making the drug to altering the formula. At least that's what the sites I've been to seem to indicate. Am I reading that right?

And while Yamazaki is stumbling around trying to find a way to NOT answer Saito's question, Hijikata walks up behind him. Silently fumes a moment as his family rememdy being dissed, then has a bright idea on how to deal with the good doctor...

Hijikata: "Yamazaki-san, I need you to check out a potential Choshu hide-out for me. It's a HIGHLY dangerous mission and there's a possibilty you won't come back alive. Rumor says there are about 50 of them looking to do away with any even slightly suspicious. I'm afraid you'll have to go in dressed as a woman..." -smirk-

And Yamazaki's career as the Shinsengumi's top spy was born...

-MissBehavin

>Hey Tama, didn't they say at the time that they would allow the Hijikata

family to keep producing the medicine if they added something else to it? But the
family refused, preferring just to stop making the drug to altering the
formula. At least that's what the sites I've been to seem to indicate. Am I reading
that right?

Yes, that's exact, only this one happend after WW2. The government changed
the Pharmaceutical Affairs Law, and Hijikata family producing the medicine until
1953 or so, abandoned then.
Still they have continued to use it in the family, and even at 40's of Showa
(after 1965), someone visited the family and asked if they had the stock,
saying only Isida San'yaku was effecacious for this person.

A little thing that I noticed about Yamazaki.
Although Yamazaki is described very differently, younger or older, ninja boy
or not, he keeps at least his Osaka area dialect and accent when he speaks, in
PMK or NHK and in other media as I remember.

Tama







[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

--- In SHQ@yahoogroups.com, Serizawa Kamo wrote:

> I'm sure people like Momoiro Usagi-san and Tama-san
> have already read this news, but...
>
> http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/national/news/20040716i407.htm
>
> Basically, there will be an event (Shinsengumi Festa
> in Hino), where 30 families will try to make once
> again the famous(?) medicine Ishida San'yaku, sold by
> Hijikata Toshizo back when he was training kenjutsu
> and used by the Shinsengumi. It seems that, till 1948,
> the Hijikata family still made that medicine. My only
> doubt is the name of the herb: I thought it was
> "gyukawa-so", but in the article says "mizosoba". I
> wonder if they are the same thing...
>
>
>
> Serizawa Kamo

Yes, "Mizosoba" and "Gyukaku-sou" are the same plants.
In a strange thing, if net search is carried out by Gyukaku-sou,
only the site related to Ishida Sanyaku will come out.
Possibly, Gyukaku-sou may be a local name in Hino area.
The scientific name of Mizosoba is "Polygonum thunbergii".
A general alias is "Ushi-no-hitai" and there is no English name.

Manufacture is stopped soon after WWII, and since the master of the
Hijikata family who learned the manufacture method in 1988 passed
away, those who tell the right manufacture method of Ishida Sanyaku
do not exist now.
After the medicinal law changed, the manufacture stop was brought
about because Ishida Sanyaku was not able to get the registration
permission as a medicine.
Although Mizosoba seemingly has some effect of a medicine, since
Ishida Sanyaku burns it, the effect of a medicine of it is lost.

momoiro-usagi