Sorori kyōka-banashi 曾呂里狂哥咄

  • This material is held at
  • Reference
      GB 59 16107.h.16
  • Dates of Creation
      1672
  • Language of Material
      Japanese
  • Physical Description
      5 volumes Condition: Good, except for some soiled corners and stains. Half of fol. 1, maki 3, is missing and has been repaired with blank paper. Fore-edge of some folios repaired by urauchi. Impression: Atozuri, from moderately worn blocks. Illustrations: A total of 29 single- and double-page sumizuri woodcuts, distributed as follows: (maki 1) 5 single; (2) 5 single, 1 double; (3) 5 single, 2 semi-double (11 / 2 pages); (4) 4 single; (5) 6 single, 1 double. Seals of ownership: None.

Scope and Content

Variant title: Kyōka-banashi 狂哥咄. Author/compiler: Asai Ryōi 淺井了意, d. 1691, also known as Hyōsuishi Shōun 瓢水子松雲. Imprint: Kyōto, Kikuya Kihē, Kanbun 12, 1672. Kanki on fol. 20b of maki 5 reads: 寛文十二壬子年仲夏吉辰 / 書林 京寺町通松原下ル町 / 菊屋喜兵衞版. (But see under Edition below.). Description: 5 kan, 5 satsu, in a chitsu case. (Maki 1) ff. 16; (2) ff. 19; (3) ff. 21; (4) ff. 15; (5) ff. 20. 25.1 x 18.4 cm. Fukurotoji. Blockprint. Printing frame 21.6 x 16.4 cm. (average). Single-line borders. Fishtail design on hanshin. Hiragana-majiri text, with printed furigana and dakuten. 12 lines to page, 24-26 characters to line. Original mid-blue covers, with original printed title slips on left bearing gedai: E-iri (tsunogaki) Sorori kyōka-banashi 繪入 (角書) 曽呂里狂哥咄. Title from naidai at head of text of each maki. Hashiragaki: Kyōka 狂哥 (or 歌) + maki no. + folio no. Edition: First published under the title Kyōka-banashi 狂歌咄 by Suzuki Gon'emon 鈴木權右衞門 in Kanbun 12 (1672). Later editions containing new material centred on Sorori Shinzaemon 曾呂里新左衞門 as leading personage and with title changed to Sorori kyōka-banashi were published, some of them retaining the original publication date of Kanbun 12. The present copy belongs to one of these later editions, date of issue unknown but possibly as late as mid-18th century. The page of publisher's advertisements following last folio of maki 5 supports this view. Contents: A collection of amusing anecdotes incorporating kyōka and waka poems, some drawn from earlier poets and some composed by the compiler. The work is variously classed as a kana-zōshi and as a hanashi-bon.

Access Information

Not Public Record(s)

Unrestricted

Acquisition Information

Acquired from Isseidō, 26 Feb. 1969.

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 f.Kana-zōshi 仮名草子

Bibliography

Nihon koten bungaku daijiten 日本古典文学大辞典, vol. 2, p. 183; 'Sorori kyōka-banashi' to Sorori setsuwa 「曽呂里狂歌咄」と曽呂里説話, in Kokugo kokubun kenkyū 国語国文研究, no. 50.