Author/compiler: Unknown. Imprint: [Kyōto] , Ibaraki Tazaemon (=Ogawa Tazaemon), n.d. Kanki on fol. 19b of maki 下 reads: 正保三丙戌歳 [a spurious date, handwritten, not blockprinted] 茨城多左衛門板. Description: 2 kan, 1 satsu, in a box. (Maki 上) ff. 22; (maki 下) ff. 19. 25.5 x 17.7 cm. Fukurotoji. Blockprint. Printing frame 20 x 15.1 cm. Single-line borders. No fishtail design on hanshin. Hiragana-majiri text without furigana. 11 lines to page, 20 characters to line. Renewed buff covers, with printed title slip from earlier front cover on left. Gedai: E-iri (tsunogaki) taketori monogatari 繪入 (角書) 竹とり物語. Title from naidai at head of maki 上 and 下. Hashiragaki: Take jō (ge) たけ 上 (下) + folio no. Edition: An undated edition of late-17th or early 18th century. This was reprinted, like Nagao Heibē's edition of Kanbun 3 寛文三年 (1663) and the same publisher's illustrated edition of Genroku 5 元禄五年 (1692), (and probably all subsequent Edo-period editions), from the original blocks of the earliest seihan edition published by Hayashi Jin'emon 林甚右衛門 in Shōhō 3 正保三年 (1646). Hence the spurious date, Shōhō 3, added by hand above the publisher's name in the present copy. No new edition printed from re-cut blocks appears to have been issued during the whole of the Edo period. Contents: One of the earliest works of prose fiction in Japanese literature, 'The Tale of the Old Bamboo Cutter', dating from the early Heian period. Probably written c. 850-950. Concerns a supernatural being, found in a bamboo stem by an old woodcutter and brought up as his daughter under the name Kaguyahime, 'The Shining Princess'.
Taketori monogatari たけとり物語
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- ReferenceGB 59 16055.c.36
- Dates of Creation[1646-1700]
- Language of MaterialJapanese
- Physical Description1 volume Condition: Good. Minimal worm damage at inner edge of leaves. Impression: Atozuri, from badly worn blocks. Illustrations: 12 sumizuri woodcuts, printed on both sides of the leaf, repeating the same number as the succeeding folio of text. In maki 上, between ff. 1 and 2, 7 and 8, 14 and 15; in maki 下, between ff. 1 and 2, 6 and 7, 12 and 13. It is clear from the folio numbering that these illustrations were inserted, between the folios of text from existing blocks to print the first illustrated edition, probably that of Genroku 5 (1692). Seals of ownership: Red seal in a circular frame Momose(?) zō 桃畝蔵, on first page of maki 上 and 下. Manuscript notes: No textual notes, but a few kutōten and shubiki in maki 上, added in red.
Scope and Content
Access Information
Not Public Record(s)
Unrestricted
Acquisition Information
Acquired from Richard Lane, 19 Nov. 1956.
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 a. Early monogatari 古物語
Bibliography
Nihon koten bungaku daijiten 日本古典文学大辞典, vol. 4, pp. 148-50; Taketori monogatari, Ise monogatari 竹取り物語・伊勢物語 (Zusetsu Nihon no koten 図説日本の古典, vol. 5), p. 82, pl. 88.