Kampo means "the Han method" and refers to Chinese medicine as it developed in Japan from the sixth century onward. It diverged in an interesting direction: Japanese practitioners tended toward simpler, more standardised formulas selected by the patient's overall presentation rather than by elaborate theory.
Japan is also the country that integrated a traditional system most fully into a modern one. Kampo formulas are manufactured to pharmaceutical standards, prescribed by conventionally trained doctors, and covered by national health insurance. Whatever one thinks of the underlying theory, the regulatory model is worth studying.
Japan also gave the world shiatsu, finger-pressure therapy, and Reiki, developed by Mikao Usui in the 1920s.
Korean medicine's landmark text is the Dongui Bogam, compiled by Heo Jun in 1613 and listed by UNESCO in its Memory of the World register. Korea developed Sasang constitutional medicine in the nineteenth century, classifying people into four types with different treatments — a striking parallel to Ayurvedic prakriti arrived at independently.
Korea also produced Su Jok, developed by Park Jae Woo in the 1980s, which is covered on its own page.
Vietnamese thuoc nam uses local plants alongside imported Chinese practice; Tue Tinh in the fourteenth century argued for treating Vietnamese people with Vietnamese medicines. Mongolian and Tibetan traditions carried Buddhist medical learning across Central Asia.
Thai traditional medicine combines Ayurvedic and Chinese influence with local practice, and is best known abroad for nuad boran, Thai massage, which works along sen lines comparable to meridians and nadis. It is taught formally at Wat Pho in Bangkok, where the eighteenth-century stone inscriptions recording the system still stand.
This site is a personal account and a record of traditional practice, shared for information. It is not medical advice, not a diagnosis, and not a treatment for any disease. I am not a doctor.
If you are unwell — and especially if you have a serious illness such as cancer, diabetes or heart disease — please stay under the care of a qualified physician. Nothing here should replace or delay that care.