Decoration: Color illustrations of the seven herbs: seri (Japanese parsley), nazuna (Shepherd's purse), gogyō (cudweed), hakobera (chickweed), tahirako (nipplewort), suzuna (turnip), and suzushiro (daikon radish). Provenance: Purchased from Jonathan A. Hill on the William Edward Archer Fund, August 2022. A manuscript on Nanakusa no sekku (Festival of Seven Herbs), a traditional Japanese ritual of eating seven-herb rice porridge on the 7th of January, which was believed to bring longevity and health and ward off evil. Abe Shōō was born in Morioka, in the northern province of Mutsu. He claimed to have studied medicine and honzogaku (empirical study of plants and animals) in China for over ten years. He built up a reputation as a physician and herbalist with an expertise in collecting medicinal plants in the area of the Inland Sea, and encouraged herbalist tours in the countryside rather than the exegetical study of manuals and encyclopediae. Abe played an important role in the state-sponsored project of improving domestic production of medicinal herbs. In 1729, he was awarded a plot of land in the Kanda ward of Edo to experiment in planting and growing sugarcane, kapok trees, and ginseng.--Marcon, page 102.
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