Finely illustrated manuscript on paper entitled on label on upper wrapper "Naniwa [or] Nanba honetsugi hiden" ["Secret Methods of Osaka Area Orthopedic External Medicine"] by ORTHOPEDICS MANUSCRIPT

Numerous finely detailed brush & ink illus. in the text, some heightened in red ink or gray wash. 45 folding leaves. Three parts in one vol. 8vo (237 x 164 mm.), orig. patterned blue wrappers, manuscript title label on upper cover, new stitching. On final page (in trans.): "Copied in Kyoto in 1813." This richly illustrated manuscript is part of the Chinese tradition of skin-deep orthopedic therapies associated with waike, literally "external therapies." Texts like ours therefore required numerous instructive illustrations of the structure of the skeleton, therapeutic methods, bone-setting, and orthopedic instruments. There are several other surviving manuscript copies of this anonymous text (the one at Tokyo University Library is incomplete; there is another in the collection of the Naito Museum of Pharmaceutical Science and Industry in Gifu Prefecture). The author describes methods of deep massage and manipulations. He describes and names all 332 bones of the body, starting with the skull and ending with the feet. There are two magnificent views of the human skeleton - front and back. The author offers a number of case histories where he employed manipulations and/or deep massage therapies. Many manipulations are depicted, as well as the necessary orthopedic devices. At the end, the author provides a number of pharmaceutical recipes. In fine condition.