15 Dec 05 Seirogan- The ‘beat the Russians’ pill

Seirogan is a generic natural medicine for diarrhea in Japan. Most people who have taken it remember it for its foul odour. The characters for Seirogan reads æ­£(sei)露(ro)丸(gan). The name seirogan does not mean anything. About a hundred years back during the Japan- Russia war (1904,1905), the companies manufacturing the medicine changed the first character to 征 instead of æ­£. It still reads sei-ro-gan but this new 征 (sei ) means conquer. Also, the second character 露(ro) could be read as Russia. So 征露丸 now read “Conquer Russia Pill”.

The Japanese army was one of the biggest consumer of this medicine - the soldiers had to take these pills everyday. Adverts for the medicine appeared on newspapers with this new characters playing on people’s patriotism and thus increasing sales.

After the war the characters were reverted back to 正露丸 like on this box sold these days.

Here is another longer article - JAPAN AND RUSSIA: MUTUAL IMAGES, 1904-39 a good read if you are interested in how the Japanese and the Russians perceived each other before the WW2.

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