Amayadori 雨やとり

Archive Unit
  • This material is held at
  • Reference
      GB 59 16107.h.8
  • Dates of Creation
      [1644-1652]
  • Language of Material
      Japanese
  • Physical Description
      3 volumes Condition: Good on the whole, with only minor soiling and staining. Impression: Atozuri from worn blocks. Illustrations: 10 single-page sumizuri woodcuts: 3 in maki 上, 4 in maki 中, and 3 in maki 下. Seals of ownership: Oblong red seal in a double frame, Ryokui shooku 綠漪書屋, on first and last pages of each maki. Also one further oblong red seal (not identified) on each final page.

Scope and Content

Variant title: Shigure しぐれ. Variant title: Shigure no en しぐれのえん. Author/compiler: Unknown. Imprint: N.p., n.d. [c. Shōhō / Keian 正保・慶安 period, 1644-52 ?] . No colophon. See under Edition below. Description: 3 kan, 3 satsu, in a chitsu case. (Maki 上) ff. 19; (中) ff. 29; (下) ff. 22. 25.6 x 18.1 cm. Fukurotoji. Blockprint. Printing frame 19.7 x 15.6 cm. (average). No borders. No fishtail design or running title on hanshin. Hiragana-majiri text with dakuten and kutōten, but no furigana. 10 lines to page, 19-21 characters to line. Original blackish-grey covers with embossed rhomboid design. Original printed title slips bearing gedai: あま屋とり (printed in different combinations of kana and kanji on the 3 daisen). Title from naidai at head of maki 上. Hashiragaki: Jō (chū, ge) 上 (中, 下) + folio no. only. Edition: Earliest editions of this work are believed to date from Shōhō / Keian (1644-52) and Manji 万治 (1658-61) periods. The first dated edition was published in Kanbun 11 (1671), with title Shigure no en しぐれのえん. The present copy, without kanki, may be a late impression, with title altered from Shigure to Amayadori, of the earliest edition (Shōhō / Keian). Contents: A tale of the Muromachi period (Muromachi jidai monogatari 室町時代物語), sometimes classed as an otogi-zōshi.

Access Information

Not Public Record(s)

Unrestricted

Acquisition Information

Acquired from Rinrōkaku, 2 April 1964.

Other Finding Aids

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 e. Muromachi jidai monogatari 室町時代物語

Bibliography

Nihon koten bungaku daijiten 日本古典文学大辞典, vol. 3, p. 170; Muromachi jidai monogatari taisei 室町時代物語大成, vol. 6, pp. 341-83.