**Compositional Analysis**

**Chapter 3**

**Herbal Drugs in Traditional Japanese Medicine**

Medicinal herbs are used in the context of ethnic traditions in various regions of the world. Although modern medicine, based on Western medicine, is practiced in developed coun‐

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) influences traditional medicine in Asian countries as a function of the cultural and historical relationships between each country and China. That is, traditional medicine has developed in each country under the influence of TCM in the

This chapter examines traditional Japanese medicine (TJM), an alternative form of medicine used in Japan. Although acupuncture, moxibustion, and several related medical practices al‐ so play important roles in TJM, herbal medicine, as the most characteristic treatment within

Western medicine often regards patients as sets of individual organs, and illnesses are often at‐ tributed to pathogens or morbid organs that should be removed. However, Asian traditional medicine, including TJM and TCM, understand patients from a holistic perspective that em‐ phasizes the importance of balancing and harmonizing the entire patient, including her or his mind and body. Asian forms of medicine explain changes in symptoms in terms of causes, and

Basic medical concepts are common to both TJM and TCM, and practitioners of these disci‐

and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

© 2012 Hatano; licensee InTech. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use,

© 2012 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution,

distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

treatments are prescribed based on a view of diseases as dynamic processes [1,2].

tries, traditional medicine is also an important part of treatment in Asian countries.

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

Tsutomu Hatano

**1. Introduction**

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/53126

context of its own cultural background.

**2. Relationship between TJM and TCM**

plines arrive at diagnoses via four basic approaches.

TJM, is the focus of this chapter.
