Eastern herbal remedies and traditional Chinese medicines are now more widely used than at any time in their long history. Thousands of people in the West, frustrated by perceived failures in Western medicine, or worried about the dangers of artificial drugs, are turning to herbal alternatives.
Japan has a 1,500-year history of traditional medicine. Although it is called kanpo (lit., "Chinese method") and kanpo-yaku (Chinese drugs), over the years it has been modified and developed so that today it is quite different from the original Chinese model.
The name kanpo itself is relatively new: While Japan has imported medicine and medical practices from China for centuries, traditional medicine was called kanpo only after the Meiji Era -- when doctors were encouraged to practice Western medicine. Until then, traditional medicine was the norm and was simply called kusuri (medicine). Western medicine, which began coming into the country from the Netherlands during the Edo Period, was called rampo, meaning Dutch medicine.