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app. Autumn 2018 5ralist, corrected Somoku-yofu and left in its preface words of praise. Such records provide valuable information, identifying not only the existence of plants over 200 years ago, but also their names as verified from the point of view of plant taxonomy.By the time of Shigemichi, the cultivation of ginseng was widespread in Japan, and growing it within the limited space of the Garden was no lon-ger profitable. The wild katakuri resources desig-nated for the Shogunate gift were dwindling, too. The Morino family presented to the Shogunate a plan to cultivate katakuri, requesting permission to use shogunal forests, but this plan did not ma-terialize due to the Shogunate collapse (1867).Following the Meiji Restoration of 1868, de-mand for traditional crude drugs fell owing to introduction of Western medicines, and the Mori-no Herb Garden faced difficult times. In 1884, seeking government support, the Morino family submitted a history of traditional crude drugs to the minister of agriculture and commerce to en-able the continued cultivation of herbal seeds and seedlings. As a result, dozens of medicinal plants have been preserved to this day. In 1917, the ju-nior fifth court rank was posthumously conferred on Saikaku for his contributions to medicinal plant cultivation, and Emperor Hirohito visited the Garden in 1951.Wellspring of BiodiversityMany herb gardens in Japan disappeared after the beginning of the Meiji era. The role of the Morino Herb Garden has changed with the passage of time.In 2010-2011, I studied a one-year survey of multiple botanical species to analyze the Garden’s natural environment and the impact of human efforts. I divided the Garden (about 11,000m2) into four areas by use: field, grassland, forest and garden, with a total of 15 subdivisions. I surveyed all vascular plants2 in these areas, including type and location of growth. My results indicate that the grassland has few annual plants which require sowing every year, and that it features high oc-cupation rates for natural seedlings. It was found that eight species, including katakuri, nokanzo (Hemerocallis fulva), hananoki (Acer pycnan-thum) and yama yu ri (Lilium auratum) all flour-ished through natural seedlings.Katakuri lives mainly in the mountainous re-gions from central Japan northward, but is rarely seen in the Kansai region. My observation showed a population of 13,000 katakuri plants growing in clusters on the sloping grassland of the Garden. Katakuri takes at least seven years to bloom, and has a life cycle of over thirty years. The seeds are carried by ants attracted by plant secretions; the plants thus flourish through insect interaction and sufficient early spring sunlight. The Garden pro-vides an environment where insects thrive, while adequate care is taken to clear undergrowth. To-day its herbs are not actively planted, but habitats favorable to the plants are fostered. The long-term coexistence of people and nature has realized the biodiversity of the Garden. Today, a secondary natural environment—that is, semi-natural, semi-cultivated—has been created which boosts plant prosperity through natural propagation. A total of 531 species of vascular plants (from 128 families) thrive there, along with 28 endangered plant spe-cies listed in the Red Data Book.3 Herein lies the environmental and sociological significance of the Morino Herb Garden: it has succeeded in main-taining the continuity of traditional crude drugs by nurturing and preserving biodiversity which cannot be seen in a modern-day botanical garden. Japan’s Unique HeritageThe stable provision of kampo medicine resourc-es is beset by problems related to the globalization of the herbal medicine market and international disputes concerning the Convention on Biologi-cal Diversity. Since most medicinal plant origins are wild, the rapid destruction of natural environ-ments threatens the disappearance of many spe-cies. A shortage of usable herbal medicines and the spread of inferior products have become self-evi-dent in Japan, a nation having limited resources, and the kampo industry faces the danger of col-lapsing. In Japan, comprehensive studies and data on medicinal plants are poor; the implementation of researches such as plant genetic resources is sorely needed. Japan’s self-sufficiency in crude drugs today is as low as ten percent: how to im-prove that number is a pressing issue if stable pro-curement is to be secured.Saikaku’s philosophy on herb cultivation and the Morino Herb Garden both provide important keys to dealing with the contemporary challenges of preserving biodiversity and enabling the stable domestic production of crude drugs. The greatest achievement of the successive Tosuke Morino lies in the methods they developed—herb cultivation, processing of crude drugs, naturalization of for-eign plants and domestication of wild plants—and the ancient wisdom that was openly shared, and which has been utilized to this day. The historic Morino Herb Garden is a living re-source of Japan’s crude drugs from which we can observe consistent ideas and initiatives regard-ing herb cultivation. It is this very legacy which serves as indisputable testament to the distinction between the traditional medicines of Japan and that of China. In the face of demands by China for global standardization and other countries pursu-ing resource nationalism, we must be cognizant of the fact that our existing crude drug traditions and the natural heritage of the Morino Garden are authentic evidence of the truly unique medicinal plant and cultivation methods that have evolved in Japan.Medicinal plant ingredients used in kampo medicineKatakuri (Erythronium japonicum) from Matsu ya ma-honzo1.  General Rules for Crude Drugs, The Japanese Pharmaco-poeia (17th edition; 2016).2.  All seed-bearing plants and pteridophytes (such as ferns), whose stalks, roots and leaves contain vascular tissue. Distin-guished from the bryophytes (mosses, etc.) and algae, which have no vascular tissue.3.  Provides data on population status of endangered wildlife spe-cies of Japan, as designated by the Ministry of Environment.