Heike monogatari 平家物語

Author/compiler: Unknown. Imprint: N.p. [Kyōto ?] , Shimomura Tokifusa 下村時房, n.d. [Keichō period, c. 1600-15] . Undated kanki reads: 下村時房刋之. Description: 12 kan, 12 satsu. Folios unnumbered. 26.5 x 19.7 cm. Fukurotoji. Movable type. Printing frame 22 x 17.5 cm. No borders. No printed hanshin. Hiragana-majiri text, without printed furigana or reading marks. 10 lines to page, 16-18 characters to line. Mid-blue covers, old but probably not original (original covers have formal patterns printed in mica), with painted designs of trees, plants and flowers in silver and gold, now tarnished. Title slips sprinkled with gold dust, bearing manuscript gedai: Heike monogatari 平家物語 + cyclical sign for each maki. Title from naidai at head of 目録 and 本文 of each maki. In a modern chitsu case. Edition: A copy of the edition known as Shimomura-bon 下村本, from the name of the publisher (and / or type engraver) on the last folio verso of maki 12. Based on the 10-line hiragana-majiri (undated) edition, which is presumed to be the earliest edition of this work, with the addition of chapter headings. Formerly believed to be a Saga-bon 嵯峨本, but the hanshiki is inferior to that of all genuine Saga-bon and probably preceded the publication of the earliest Saga-bon. The present copy belongs to the earlier variant of the Shimomura-bon, in which the chapter heading of maki 8, 山門御幸, was omitted in setting up the type. Contents: Greatest of the war tales (gunki monogatari 軍記物語), dealing with the heyday of the Taira family (1160-80) and the wars between the Taira and Minamoto clans (1180-85), ending in the crushing defeat of the Taira (Heike 平家). Probably written by a court noble in the early 13th century, though the original source material is uncertain. The work is permeated throughout by Buddhist doctrines of the impermanence of human life and activity.

Unrestricted

Acquired from Richard Lane, 4 April 1960.

Kenneth Gardner, Descriptive Catalogue of Japanese books in the British Library printed before 1700 (London and Tenri, 1993). C. Japanese works 和書 5. Literature - fiction 国文-小説 d. Gunki monogatari 軍記物語

Kokatsujiban no kenkyū 古活字版の研究, pp. 291, 426, 476, 533, 895, pl. 81; Ryūmon bunko zenpon shomoku 竜門文庫善本書目, p. 149; Daitōkyū kinen bunko kichōsho kaidai 大東急記念文庫貴重書解題, vol. 3, p. 61; Takagi bunko kokatsuji-ban mokuroku. 高木文庫古活字版目録, p. 16; Zenpon eifu 善本影譜, series 1, vol. 5; Nihon koten bungaku daijiten 日本古典文学大辞典, vol. 5, pp. 390-9; Heike monogatari shohon no kenkyū 平家物語諸本の研究 p. 48.