There are things in this world that one desires desperately but can rarely obtain: gold, silver, treasure, love, both tangible and intangible things… And for some people, that might be a medicine.
There is a medicine known as Jikan (児干). It is said that consuming it fills one with vitality and cures all diseases. Upon hearing of such a drug, it is human nature to wish to test its efficacy. The raw ingredient, however, is a human child. It is an elixir of high rarity and value.
Those Who Sought Jikan
The Woman Who Killed Her Own Daughter in Pursuit of the Elixir and Became an Ogress: From the Legend of the Ogress of Adachigahara
The legend of the Ogress of Adachigahara (安達ヶ原), famously depicted in a painting by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (月岡芳年), tells of an ogress who tries to tear an unborn child from a woman’s womb to cure an incurable disease. This ogress, however, did not take pleasure in disembowelling people.
According to the legend, there was once an old woman named Iwate who served a princess. The princess suffered from an incurable illness that no doctor could cure. A fortune teller informed them that “drinking the live liver of a child still in the womb will cure the disease.” Iwate travelled to Adachigahara in Oshu in search of the live liver of a pregnant woman. She settled there, offering lodging to travellers and then taking their live livers.
One evening, a young couple arrived. The woman was pregnant, and Iwate subsequently cut open her abdomen. The dying woman confessed that she was travelling to find her mother. The woman was Iwate’s own daughter. Iwate had killed her daughter, and consequently, her grandchild. Distraught by her actions, Iwate is said to have transformed into an ogress.
The Man Who Attacked a Pregnant Woman to Obtain the Medicine: From the story Konjaku Monogatari
This occurred when Taira no Sadamori (平貞盛) was the Governor of Tanba (丹波) Province. He developed a malignant tumour and, upon consulting a doctor, was informed that the wound was serious and required a medicine called Jikan for treatment. The doctor described Jikan as a ‘medicine that must not be known to others’.
Taira no Sadamori commanded that the fetus of his pregnant daughter-in-law be provided for the medicine. The doctor, sympathizing with the distraught son, informed Taira no Sadamori that a child of his own bloodline would not be suitable for the cure. Taira no Sadamori then set his sights on a pregnant woman who worked in the kitchens. He immediately cut open her abdomen, but the fetus was a girl, which was also deemed unsuitable. Ultimately, he was able to find a substitute, and Taira no Sadamori’s life was saved.
What Exactly Is Jikan?
What exactly was this medicine, Jikan, that the ogress and Taira no Sadamori were so desperate to find? Based on the stories, Jikan seems to have been the liver of a fetus. Indeed, medical texts confirm that the character 干 (kan) here refers to 肝 (kimo, or liver). It was not just any liver that would suffice, but only specific, limited livers were believed to possess medicinal properties.
Jikan was a potent remedy made from drying a fetus that had been aborted at four to five months of gestation. It was stored with incense, thoroughly dried to prevent putrefaction, and then consumed. Typically, the dried Jikan was shaved or ground into a powder before use.
In short, Jikan was a powder made from a mummified fetus. Although the exact mechanism is unknown, it was primarily said to be effective for severed tendons, bones, and wounds, and was apparently highly valued as a medicine for sword injuries.
Did Jikan Cure All Diseases?
Fetal matter was once sometimes regarded as a drug for eternal youth and immortality. The liver, in particular, seemed to possess exceptional efficacy.
Stories related to Jikan include tales of a turtle’s wife in India, who was nearing childbirth and requested her husband bring her a monkey’s liver to cure her abdominal illness, and tales that the liver of a beautiful woman with lovely hair was effective in treating disease. In the world of folklore, it seems that the liver of a living creature, not just a fetus, was believed to have curative effects.
What is terrifying is that this was not confined to the realm of folklore.
A record remains stating that in the fifth month of Kenkyu 9, Nakatomi no Totada (中臣遠忠), the Chief Priest (Sho no Azukari; 正預) of Kasuga (春日), was accused by the Priest of Kasuga Wakamiya (春日若宮) Shrine in Nara.
The cause is said to be that Nakatomi no Totada took Jikan after being injured in an unfortunate accident. Since Jikan was made from the dead, he was apparently questioned about what it meant for someone who was both a shrine official and a living person to consume the dead. This was only natural. Even in the human world, Jikan was used as a medicine.
The Human Body as Medicine
The human body can be used as medicine. This was not limited to the fetus.
Customs observed until the Meiji era included ‘Hone-kami’ (bone chewing) and ‘Hone-koburi’ (bone sharing). These involved the living consuming (eating) the bones of the deceased in order to take the soul of the dead person into their own bodies and keep it alive. One might recoil at the thought of eating part of a dead person, but this practice also contained a sense of mourning. Though bone, it was once a part of the deceased’s body. The act of treating it as an alien object immediately after death is arguably a manifestation of living humans’ attempt to distance themselves from the dead.
While one may not consume it voluntarily, not only the liver and bones but also the placenta (Ena, 胞衣) can be eaten.
‘Shikasha’ (紫河車) is a traditional Chinese medicine prepared from the placenta of a newborn child.
Furthermore, the Bencao Gangmu (Compendium of Materia Medica), a classic text of traditional Chinese pharmacology, also contains descriptions of the placenta’s medicinal properties. According to the text, the placenta is effective against physical fatigue.
The Mystical Power Contained in the Umbilical Cord
The umbilical cord is said to possess the same efficacy as Jikan. The umbilical cord is the long, rope-like organ that connects the fetus’s navel to the placenta. It plays the crucial role of delivering nutrients from the mother to the fetus.
Since ancient times in Japan, there has been a custom of carefully drying and preserving the severed umbilical cord, so many people may have seen the real thing (or the cord that was once connected to them). Objectively, carefully preserving a part of the human body indefinitely can seem somewhat bizarre. However, the umbilical cord serves purposes beyond merely preserving a memory.
For example, it was once customary to decoct and drink the preserved umbilical cord when one was seriously ill. This was based on the belief that by reintroducing the umbilical cord, which once provided nutrients from the mother, into the body, one could restore health.
Gaining Power from the Otherworld Through Consumption
The human body is made up of what one consumes. Therefore, by consuming the freshest and most life-force-filled substance in this world, one could assimilate those qualities. The medicine Jikan may have been born from this kind of thinking.
The fetus, growing rapidly with surging vitality within the life-nurturing mother’s womb, was likely viewed as a concentrated mass of life itself. The fact that it was difficult to obtain may also have heightened Jikan’s rarity and value. Humans who desire something will resort to any means to acquire it. While the materials of the medicine are horrifying, the actions of the humans who seek it are, like the ogress, equally terrifying.
Conclusion
A strange power resides in the parts shed from the human body. There are beliefs that the umbilical cord houses a guardian spirit or a part of the child’s soul, that dolls modelled after a fetus can be used as talismans, and various spells related to lost teeth. Such ideas are still alive around us today. For example, the placenta is used in the form of placenta injections for treating the effects of aging in women, and the umbilical cord is preserved as cord blood.
It is unlikely that the Ogress of Adachigahara knew about the extraordinary power concealed within the human body, but the human body certainly holds a power sufficient to lure people astray. Those who sought the elixir must have known at least that much.
[References]
Yasui Manami (安井眞奈美), Nerawareta Karada: Yamai to Yokai to Gender (狙われた身体 病いと妖怪とジェンダー), Heibonsha, 2022.
Saito Kenichi (斉藤研一), Kodomo no Chuseishi (子どもの中世史), Yoshikawa Kobunkan, 2003.
Konjaku Monogatari Shu Vol. 5 (Japanese Classical Literature Series), Iwanami Shoten, 1963.
This article is translated from https://intojapanwaraku.com/rock/culture-rock/272033/
