Japanese medicine was dominated by religion and superstition and based on three fundamental elements – exorcism, purification (baths and personal hygiene) and treatments with medicinal herbs.
 

From the 5th century, traditional Chinese medicine begins to impose itself in a more definitive way in Japan due to diplomatic contacts that worked as channels for the dissemination of the Chinese religion and science. In 723, a pharmacy and an asylum were installed in a temple belonging to the aristocratic Fujiwara family.
In 1549, Japan first came into contact with Western science and culture through the relations established with Portuguese merchants and missionaries.

In 1556, Luís de Almeida (1525-1583) a Portuguese Jesuit priest, under the patronage of Otomo Yoshishige, Lord of Bungo, founded a hospital for lepers and syphilitics. Annex to the ward, there was a pharmacy stocked with medicinal plants from Macao.

In 1639, Japan banned all contacts with foreigners and the Westerners were expelled. Only the Dutch and the Chinese were allowed to maintain trade relations, although under strict conditions, and both cultures had a decisive influence on the Japanese medicine.