This research investigated the “Shuhokiku, ” an Edo-era bestseller, said to have been authored by Manase Dosan (1507-1594) and supplemented by Manase Gensaku (1549-1631), The investigation yielded the following results:
(1) “Shuhokiku” is surmised to be the oral discourse of Manase Gensaku's disciple, Okamoto Genya (1587-1645), transcribed by Genya's student.
(2) Of the prescriptions included in the “Shuhokiku, ” seventy percent are quotations from Gong Ting Xian's medical treatises. There are numerous quotes from Gong Ting Xian's works, particularly the “Wanbing Huichun”; prescriptions stemming from this medical manuscript account for sixty percent of the prescriptions in the “Shuhokiku”.
(3) The “Shuhokiku” is based on a medical system of “basic and modified prescriptions.” The numerous modified prescriptions cited in the “Shuhokiku” demonstrate that the work relied heavily on the “Wanbing Huichun.”
(4) Various editions of the “Shuhokiku” are classified into three groups.