Shin kokin wakashū 新古今和歌集

Archive Unit
  • This material is held at
  • Reference
      GB 59 16100.c.24
  • Dates of Creation
      [1689]
  • Language of Material
      Japanese
  • Physical Description
      4 volumes Condition: For the most part good. Some worm damage, especially in upper margins of satsu 4. Impression: Not shozuri, but a fairly early impression. Illustrations: Each satsu opens with a 1-page or 2-page frontispiece; the one on fol. 1a of satsu 1 depicts the five compilers of Shin kokinshū presenting their work to Emperor Go-Toba. In addition, there are 16 double-sided sumizuri woodcuts, 4 to each satsu, denoted by mata 又 + number of preceding folio. Illustrations are attributed to Yoshida Hanbē 吉田半兵衞, fl. late-17th century. Seals of ownership: Three red seals, one oblong, two square, on first or second page of each satsu. The oblong seal reads Kanchō (or Nukinaga or Tsuranaga) zōhon 貫長藏本. The smaller square seal might also be Kanchō 貫長.

Scope and Content

Author/compiler: Fujiwara no Sadaie (Teika) 藤原定家,1162-1241, and others. Imprint: N.p., Bunkōdō, n.d. [Genroku 2, 1689] . Kanki on fol. 43b of maki 4 reads: 元禄四年 [以上写] 孟春吉祥日 ／ 書肆 文擴堂新板. The date Genroku 4 (1691) has been written in by hand and is spurious, no recorded edition of this work having been published between Genroku 2 (1689) and Genroku 9 (1696). Description: 4 kan, 4 satsu, in a box. (Maki 1) ff. [1] (illus.), 1-5 (genealogy + kana-majiri preface), 6-45 (本文); (maki 2) ff. [1] (illus.), 34; (maki 3) ff. [1] (illus.), 31; (maki 4) ff. [1] (illus.), 43. 23 x 15.6 cm. Fukurotoji. Blockprint. Printing frame 18.8 x 14.2 cm. (average). Single-line borders, without fishtail design on hanshin. Hiragana-majiri text without furigana. Mana 真名 preface on ff. 42-43 of maki 4 is in kanji only. 14 lines to page, variable no. of characters to line. Original (?) mid-blue covers overpainted with designs of plants and grasses, now oxidised. Original title slips, centrally placed, survive on satsu 1 and 4. Printed gedai: 京圖え入 (角書) 新古今和哥集. Title from naidai at head of each satsu. Hashiragaki: Shin kokin 新古今 + maki no. + folio no. Edition: Since the manuscript date Genroku 4 (1691) in the kanki is unreliable, this copy is presumed to belong to either the edition of Genroku 2 (1689) or of Genroku 9 (1696). A note at head of genealogy on fol. 1b of satsu 1 (printed) states that the lapse of time between the submission of the completed Shin kokinshū to Emperor Go-Toba in Genkyū 2 元久二年 (1205) and the year Genroku 2 amounted to '487 years'. This suggests that the present edition may have been published in Genroku 2 (1689). Contents: After the Kokinshū 古今集, this is the greatest of all the 21 imperial anthologies of waka poetry, commissioned by the retired emperor Go-Toba in 1201 and officially completed in 1205 by Fujiwara no Sadaie and a group of high-ranking courtiers. Comprises 1981 poems in 20 kan.

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 7. Literature - poetry 国文-詩歌 b. Waka 和歌

Bibliography

Nihon koten bungaku daijiten 日本古典文学大辞典, vol. 3, p. 462.