- Fig. 2.1. A popular illustrated medical sheet about measles from 1862, when the Japanese measles epidemic was proclaimed as the epic crisis of a generation. The text outlines the clinical stages of measles infection. At first, a person will start to feel terrible and suffer from unquenchable thirst. By the fifth and sixth days, the victim will lose the appetite for food and cease eating, causing much worry. From the tenth through twelfth days, the person’s condition will significantly improve. However, even after the symptoms of measles have abated, the person has to follow a strict regimen in order to completely recover and avert a relapse. For seventy-five days in the convalescent period, the person has to abstain from certain actions and food items: sex, bath, moxibustion (a medical therapy involving the burning of moxa on meridian points on the body), wine, and buckwheat. Other taboo foods include burdock root, spinach, sorghum, eggplant, and taro, while the following are recommended to boost the person’s constitution: daikon (radish), pickles, sweet potato, azuki bean, common bean, kelp (arame; sea oak is a type of kelp), lily, and others. From Utagawa (Mōsai) Yoshitora, An Account about Recovering from Measles (Japanese title: Hashika yōjō no den), 1862. National Diet Library Digital Collections.
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