Note 24 — Chapter XVII · Culture Mixing in Japan

In Korea ginseng is cultivated under Government supervision. “It is”, Mrs. Bishop writes,24 “one of the most valuable articles which Korea exports, and one great source of its revenue.” A basket may contain ginseng worth £4000. “But,” she adds, “valuable as the cultivated root is, it is nothing to the value of the wild, which grows in Northern Korea, a single specimen of which has been sold for £40! It is chiefly found in the Kang-ge Mountains, but it is rare, and the search so often ends in failure, that the common people credit it with magical properties, and believe that only men of pure lives can find it.” The dæmon who is “the tutelary spirit of ginseng … is greatly honoured” (p. 243). A ready market is found in China for Korean ginseng. “It is a tonic, a febrifuge, a stomachic, the very elixir of life, taken spasmodically or regularly in Chinese wine by most Chinese who can afford it” (p. 95).