This year, the Minami-za Theater in Kyoto hosted
another March Hanagata Kabuki performance by young Hanagata actors starting on March 2.
This March marks the fourth year of Hanagata performances at the Minami-za Theater, and it looks like they will become a fixture.
This year, Ichitaro Nakamura and Ukon Onoe,
Hayato Nakamura and the three signboard actors struggle.
Kawasho" based on "Shinju Ten Amijima" and "Onna Koroshi Abura Jigoku
and "Onna-slaying Abura-jigoku," both masterpieces of Kamigata kabuki.
I also enjoyed the play at the Minamiza for a whole day from the first day,
The veterans in the upper part of the company are well flanked by the veterans,
It is also interesting to see popular actors from the East show their plays at Sin,
It was spectacular.
By the way, there are not many Kabuki plays in which a doctor plays an active role, but there are often scenes in which
medicine appears.
In this "Aburatori Onna Jigoku" (The Aburatori Woman's Hell), we don't know what kind of medicine it is, but
Osawa, the mother of the main character, Yohei, comes home with a big medicine bag for her daughter who is ill.
In "Yotsuya Ghost Story", Osawa's face is disfigured by the medicine (poison...).
In Kumoishi Azusa-gen, a spider spirit disguised as a medicine seller comes to deliver medicine.
There is a medicine for depression,
The name of the medicine is clearly mentioned in one of the famous Kabuki plays,
"Gairo-suppai" (Gairo seller), a famous Odawara specialty, which is very effective if you take a dose.
It is said that the tongue becomes smooth, and even rapid speech becomes vivid.
This gairo is a Chinese medicine called "Touting Kang".
In the Edo period, seeing a doctor was expensive, and since there were no
qualifications or licenses as there are now,
there were probably many unscientific treatments and self-proclaimed doctors who raised eyebrows.
When the common people fell ill, they relied on medicines sold to them.
Toyama's "Hangontan", Ise's "Mankintan",
and Omi's "Wachusan" were the panacea for the common people.
Rokushingan" has also been a favorite drug of many people since the Edo period.
Risaburo, the eldest son of Rihei VI, traveled to Jingdezhen with his relative, Kiyomizu ware potter Masashimizu Zoroku,
and fell ill in Shanghai, where they were quickly healed with Rokushingan, which they obtained locally.
They imported this Rokushinganto Japan,
and returned after learning the formula called Lei Ujikata to promote it.
At first, he imported and sold them, but in 1894, he changed his business to an apothecary because of the good reputation of
Rokushingan . RokushinganAt the same time as importing
, we poured our energies into researching domestic production, and in 1897, when the import of Rokushinganwas banned because it contained
chicken crown stone (arsenic), we started selling
domestically produced Akaizutsuyaku Rokushinganwith a history of our own.
RokushinganNot only that, but home remedies derived from Chinese herbal medicine continue to be made all over Japan and
have long been a favorite of the Japanese. Occasionally, Rokushinganthe name may not ring a bell, but the moment you see the
package, you may say, "Oh, yes! My grandma used to drink it," or
"My parents always had it at home.
The fact that people have been drinking it for a long time is proof of its safety.
We would like to continue to cherish this unique Japanese medicine that has been handed down and taken for generations.