New Year's Medicine - Cancer Medicine

…In Japan, it has been used in New Year's Day ceremonies at the Imperial Court since the early Heian period. This event, called Gan-nichi Okusuri (New Year's Medicine), involved soaking toso powder prepared by the Bureau of Medicine in a well on the night of New Year's Day, and on the morning of New Year's Day, following the tooth-hardening ritual, the Emperor was presented with toso powder, byakusan powder, and toshosan powder in that order. Later, it also came to be used by the general public as a New Year's Day celebration. There is a widely-held theory about the origin of the word toso, which is that a man who lived in a hermitage called toso distributed medicine every New Year's Eve to protect the health of the villagers, and had them take it on New Year's Day. However, it is also said that it was originally the name of a medicinal herb native to the Western Regions, and was introduced to China around the time of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. …

*Some of the terminology that refers to "New Year's Medicine" is listed below.

Source | Heibonsha World Encyclopedia 2nd Edition | Information

…日本では平安前期以来，宮中で元日の儀式に用いられていた。元日御薬（がんにちおくすり）と呼ばれたこの行事は，典薬寮で調えた屠蘇散を中国どうよう除夜に井戸につけ，元日の朝，歯固めに続いて屠蘇，白散（びやくさん），度嶂散（としようさん）の順序で天皇に進められていたもので，その後，民間でも元日の祝儀に用いるようになった。屠蘇の語源については，屠蘇という名の草庵に住んでいた人が，里人の健康を守るため除夜ごとに薬を配って，元日に服用させたことに始まるなどの説が流布されてきたが，元来は西域に産する薬草の名で，東晋ごろ中国へ伝えられたものともいう。…

※「元日御薬」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