人参耕作記: Ninjin Kōsaku-ki (Ginseng Cultivation Record )

Yanxiang 4 [1747] Preface (1747) first edition. 58 pages, 12 illustrations, A few worm holes repaired, new covers & custom camise.

The first book to describe the agricultural experiments leading to the successful cultivation of Korean ginseng in Japan. Tamura Ransui (1718-76), official physician to the shogunate, “first succeeded in growing ginseng plants in Japan.”–Federico Marcon, The Knowledge of Nature and the Nature of Knowledge in Early Modern Japan, p. 212. The importation (actually, smuggling) of live seedlings from Korea proved to be a formidable challenge, but it enabled Tamura to finally produce domestically grown Korean ginseng. By early 1740, commercially viable quantities were at last cultivated on the island nation. Tamura travelled throughout Japan studying and collecting rare herbs. He wrote extensively on ginseng and other plants with economic value, such as sweet potatoes and cotton.