Black-roasted newt - Black-roasted newt

... Love potions are also aphrodisiacs, and it was believed that using them would increase the person's feelings of love for a particular person. A typical example is the "blackened newt," a spray sold by a pharmacist called Yotsumeya, who specialized in aphrodisiacs, during the Edo period. This potion was invented from a legend that if you separate a male and female newt at the joints during the mating season and place them in a bamboo tube, they will break through the joints and mate overnight, and if you separate them and burn them, the smoke will join together in the air even if they are separated by mountains. However, one theory is that the Chinese newts that are the basis of this belief are different from those in Japan. ...

*Some of the terminology that refers to "blackened newt" is listed below.

Source | Heibonsha World Encyclopedia 2nd Edition | Information

…　惚薬（ほれぐすり）も媚薬の一つであるが，これを用いれば相手が特定の人物に恋慕の情をつのらせると信じられた。〈イモリの黒焼き〉はその代表的なもので，江戸時代に淫薬専門の四目屋（よつめや）と称する薬屋が売った撒布薬である。交尾期のイモリの雌雄を節をへだてて竹筒に入れると一夜のうちに節を食い破って交尾し，引き離して焼けば山を隔てていてもその煙が空中でいっしょになるという言い伝えから考案された薬だが，一説にはこの俗信のもとになった中国のイモリは日本のものとは別だという。…

※「イモリの黒焼き」について言及している用語解説の一部を掲載しています。

出典｜株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典 第２版について | 情報