| Summary: | Jonathan A. Hill, Bookseller, description: Illustrated manuscript on paper in highly legible characters, entitled on upper wrapper “Uma no sho. Gozo ronsho” [trans.: “Book about Horses. Theory Book of the Five Organs”]. 15 finely colored brush & ink full-page illus. in the text. 24 folding leaves. Large 4to (305 x 255 mm.), orig. wrappers (some worming throughout, much of it marginal), sewn as issued. Japan: 17th or early 18th century. An attractively illustrated manuscript which comprehensively describes the diseases and treatments of horses. The Buddhist influence of the five elements predominates in the description of the anatomy of the horse with the anonymous author giving accounts of the five chief internal organs (lung, heart, liver, spleen, and kidney). The text is based on 17th-century Chinese texts on veterinary medicine. A number of the illustrations have been drawn separately and pasted-on to the sheets. The first image we encounter depicts the five most important internal organs, labelled in Japanese with adjacent characters in Sanskrit, with their corresponding elements: air, wind, fire, water, and earth. The following full-page illustration depicts the pressure points on the horse, suitable for acupuncture or moxibustion treatments with instructions on how to measure placement of needles. The legible text consists mainly of case histories and pharmaceutical recipes which follow each succeeding illustration. The first illustrated case history is a horse with heart, breathing, and urinary problems. The next illustration again shows how to measure where to place the needle or apply moxibustion and the medical results. This treatment is for other kinds of lung problems, again with formulas for drugs. The following illustration depicts a horse with kidney illnesses, followed by a horse with a diseased spleen. Another illustration depicts the physiognomy of the horse whereby one can tell what kinds of illnesses one can expect depending on the physical appearance of the horse. In the text, the anonymous author describes the kinds and colors of coats horses have. The author states that horse owner should choose horses with a compatible coat to his own nature. Also, treatments are applied depending on the color of the horse's coat. Another illustration depicts a horse in great agony, suffering from a grave heart problem. Symptoms are described and medicines recommended. Pressure points are depicted. The next illustration depicts a vomiting horse, due to an imbalance of the spleen. The author recommends adding sake and oil to hay and feeding it to the horse. The following two illustrations are that of a horse with kidney illnesses. The final leaves of text contain a discussion of the five organs with another illustration of the five organs, all color coded (lung is white, heart is red, liver is blue, spleen is yellow, and kidney is black). The author describes five seasonings to give to horses, other pharmaceutical recipes, a discussion of treatments from other works, historical references, etc. The text on the rear outer wrapper discusses who is sufficiently trained to treat horses. On the inside front cover is an ownership inscription stating that this manuscript was used in the Kotaro residence in Iwanaga village.
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