Moxa” (Japanese, “mokusa;” “mo,” fire; from “moyeru,” to burn and “kusa,” herb, grass), or the burning of a small cone of cotton fibers of the artemisia, on the back or feet, was practiced as early as the eleventh century, reference being made to it in a poem written at that time. A number of ancient stanzas and puns, relating to Mount Ibuki, on the sides of which the mugwort grows luxuriantly, are still extant. To this day it is an exception to find the backs of the common people unscarred with the spots left by the moxa.
The use of mercury in corrosive sublimate was very anciently known. The “do-sha” powder, however, which was said to cure various diseases, and to relax the rigid limbs of a corpse, was manufactured and sold only by the bonzes of the Shin Gon sect. It is, and always was, a pious fraud, being nothing but unefficacious quartz sand, mixed with grains of mica and pyrites.
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From General Nelson A. Miles
Thrilling Stories of The Russian-Japanese War, 1904
