Metsa, Mogusa, Moxa
The English word moxa is used to describe the healing practice of moxibustion. The term is commonly thought to derive in the late-17th century from the Japanese mogusa (モグサ). The term mogusa is pronounced moe kusa, with the “u” receive less emphasis. The phonetic resonance between mogusa and moxa is pointed to as evidence of linguistic and cultural transmission. The term moxa was first used in print by the Dutch minister, Herman Buschoff who wrote the first Western book about moxibustion in 1674, after receiving moxibustion treatment for gout in Japan. Buschoff is an important figure in the transmission of moxibustion to Europe from Japan, during a time when Japan had closed its borders to all but the Dutch.
Chinese acupuncture and moxibustion found its way to Japan in the 7th century. The Japanese became masters of the art especially during the Edo period, with many practitioners opting to practice “acupuncture” with moxibustion alone, to the exclusion of needle therapies. The Japanese also perfected the cultivation and processing of the moxa plant and wool. Even today, Japanese moxa is considered the highest quality available.
Given Buschoff’s awareness of the Japanese term mogusa and his coinage of the term moxa in the first European treatise on moxibustion, this seems a clear linguistic transmission between Japanese and English. However, we should also inquire into the origins of mogusa and whether it owes its origins to the Tibetan word for moxibustion—metsa.
According to Prof. Namkhai Norbu, a scholar of Tibetan language and history, the origin of the term moxa is, in fact, from the Tibetan word metsa (མེ་བཙ་)—me means “fire” and btsa means “focal point”. There is also textual evidence in the Mawangdui silk texts of the early 2nd century CE which feature Tibetan moxibustion texts alongside texts on Daoist Yoga and Chinese herbalism. The Mawangdui silk texts also establish the practice of moxibustion centuries before acupuncture, making it one of the oldest medical therapies. Tibetan medical texts describe over 500 moxibustion points. Tibetan moxibustion is an early form of point-based therapy that developed before the advent of needling acupuncture, and which has never incorporated needling acupuncture into its therapeutic paradigm since. Indeed, moxibustion and bloodletting were the “pre-acupuncture” therapies of antiquity.
Part of the reason moxibustion has endured throughout the centuries and across borders is because moxa is not a highly technical therapy. Moxa does not belong to the realm of the privileged—it can be practiced even by the laymen under the guidance of a practitioner. In Japan, it is common for acupuncturists to recommend their patients do moxa on themselves at home, in between treatments. Typically, the stick-on moxa is utilized for its ease of application, but in earlier times, moxa was practiced as a folk medicine at home and even used as a form of punishment!
Therefore, the historical transmission of moxibustion can be understood in the following sequence: Originates in Tibet —> spreads to Mongolia and China —> spreads from China to Taiwan, Korea, and Japan. If we accept that the Japanese mogusa comes from the Tibetan moxa, then does this suggest a direct form of cultural transmission between Tibet and Japan? This would need to be studied further, but I believe that many of the answers will be found in studying the transmission of Zen Buddhism from India and China to Tibet.