Since a lot of things are unclear about the life of MIWA TOsaku, the author of “Shiraku bunkenroku”. We collected, organized, and analyzed materials about him from various texts, such as “Shiraku bunkenroku”, “Kushimitama”, “Nihon ihu”, “Zoku shoka jimbutsushi”, “Kokon bokuseki kantei benran”, “Ika sentetsu shOzOshu”. As a result, We discovered the following. His father's name was UEDA Sado.
Miwa's name was Tosaku. His “azana” was BOkei, and his “go” was Sensban. He also called himself Omiwa Masaaki or Miwadan. He was born in Kyoto in 1747. Having also lived in ChOshi, he practiced medicine in Asakusa. He had at least one son, Omiwa Yoshiaki. The year of Miwa's death is not clear, but he lived at least until 1819.

MIWA Tosaku was a practitioner of “shiraku” medicine during the Edo period. It was considered that “Shiraku bunkenroku” (dictated by Tosaku, transcribed by ITO Daisuke) was the only remaining textbook by him. However, newly found Tosaku's books such as “Yamatoigo,” “Sehon yamatoigo” and “Miwashi kazohomyoyakushu” revealed his portrait and technique in greater detail. This report includes an introduction and a discussion about these three books, and presents a novel biography of Tosaku. Although it has been noted that he focused only on “shiraku” therapy, these new books show that he often prescribed Japanese original formulae of herbs, performed “shiraku” on both prevention and treatment, and used folk medicine simultaneously.