Wayakushu aratame kaisho (agency for checking the quality of Japanese medicinal materials) (和薬種改会所)
Wayakushu aratame kaisho was an agency established by the Edo bakufu (Japanese feudal government headed by a shogun) during the Edo period, which performed quality control check on domestic (Japanese) materials of medicines. It was also called Wayaku kaisho or Wayaku aratame kaisho.
It was set up in Ise-machi in Edo in July 1727 and subsequently placed in Awaji-machi in Osaka, Shinmei-cho in Sakai, Nijo Street in Kyoto and Sunpu as well. The representatives of wholesale drug companies in those cities had been summoned to Edo beforehand, where they attended a lecture by Shohaku NIWA, a scholar of herbalism, and were required to submit their opinions on the standards and measures for controlling domestic materials of medicines.
All the domestic materials of medicines sent from various districts to the cities where the agency was set up, as well as those sent to other districts passing through the cities, were obligated to receive a seal of approval (a brand or paper tag) after being inspected at kaisho for their genuineness and quality (if the amount of the materials was large, visiting inspection was performed by officials of the kaisho.)
For the inspection, fees were collected both from sellers and buyers as 'aratameryo' (改料) (inspection fee). In the case of Osaka, for which relatively many data remain, there were three main warehouse merchants serving as Todori (chiefs) of the kaisho, who took turns in supervising officials of the kaisho, and under them, there were 121 people belonging to Yakushuya nakama (the union of drug sellers), who were divided into groups by basically three people (40 groups in total) and worked at the kaisho every other day as the officials to conduct inspection and collect aratameryo.
In June 1738, the kaisho was abolished because the quality of the materials improved as drug traders such as wholesale drug companies or drug sellers learnt to recognize genuine products; however, the true reason is said to be that there was a strong backlash from the traders against the possibility of the control of medicinal material distribution by Wayakushu aratame kaisho.