[Hyakunin isshu] [百人一首]

Author/compiler: Compilation attributed to Fujiwara no Sadaie (Teika) 藤原定家, 1162-1241. Imprint: N.p., n.d. [mid- to late-17th or even 18th century ?] . No colophon. Description: 1 kan, 1 satsu, now rebound in 1 vol. western style. ff. [52] (unnumbered). Folios printed on both sides of thick paper heavily loaded with gofun and dyed in five colours (see under Edition below). 25.8 x 18.2 cm. Original form of binding not evident. Blockprinted text and illustrations. Printing frame 20.5 x 17 cm. (average). No borders. No printed hanshin. Hiragana-majiri text in gyōsho script. 7-8 lines (one poem) to each page. Original dark blue covers, with painted designs of landscape (front cover) and plum blossom (back cover) in gold. No title slip, gedai or naidai. In a western style cloth-backed binding. Edition: A luxury edition, not traced in any work of reference. Judging by the thick, loaded paper, the gold-painted covers (reminiscent of a narae-hon 奈良絵本 manuscript), the underprinting of the poems with designs of grasses in silver, and the paper of varied colours, this book was designed as a kubari-bon for private distribution, and not as a commercial publication. Apart from those pages left white, the paper is dyed in five colours: clear yellow, ochre, salmon pink, paler pink and a dusky rose. Colour follows colour in random fashion, alternating with white. Printed pages are protected at beginning and end by two yellow sheets, printed with silver designs like the text pages, additional to the mikaeshi. This is not a Saga-bon 嵯峨本. Contents: A collection of 100 waka poems, each by a different poet, beginning with Emperor Tenji 天智天皇 and ending with Juntoku 順德院 (1197-1242). The anthology was probably compiled by Fujiwara no Sadaie (Teika) and subsequently revised. In this copy, as in many others, a portrait of the poet accompanies each poem.

Unrestricted

Acquired from William Anderson, 21 March 1894.

Kenneth Gardner, Descriptive Catalogue of Japanese books in the British Library printed before 1700 (London and Tenri, 1993). C. Japanese works 和書 7. Literature - poetry 国文-詩歌 b. Waka 和歌

Nihon koten bungaku daijiten 日本古典文学大辞典, vol. 5, p. 189.