Teikan zusetsu 帝鑑圖説 [帝鑑図説]

Archive Unit
  • This material is held at
  • Reference
      GB 59 ORB 30/189
  • Dates of Creation
      1606
  • Language of Material
      Japanese
  • Physical Description
      1 volume Condition: Very good. Negligible worm damage, neatly repaired. Slight water-staining in lower margins of kōshū. Impression: Sharp and clear, yet this is a copy of the edition printed without batsubun. Illustrations: Profusely illustrated with sumizuri woodcuts, double-page (extending across the fold), based on Chinese exemplars but in characteristic early-Edo Japanese style. 80 illustrations in zenshū, 36 in kōshū. Each illustrates an episode in the life of an emperor described in the text. Notable as an accomplished work of book illustration from the earliest period, when non-Buddhist illustrated works were few. Seals of ownership: None.

Scope and Content

Author/compiler: Zhang JuZheng 張居正, 1525-82, and LÜ Tiaoyang 呂調陽, 1516-80. Imprint: N.p., n.d. [Jōtai 承兌, Keichō 11, 1606] . This copy, though undoubtedly belonging to the edition commissioned by Toyotomi Hideyori (see below), lacks the 2-folio batsubun or kango which is found in earlier impressions. The last two lines of this kango, in a complete copy, read as follows: 慶長拾壹稔星集丙午春三月 日 ／ 豊光老衲承兌. Description: Formerly in 6 satsu, now rebound in 1 vol. western style. The 6 satsu are grouped in two larger parts: zenshū 前集 (satsu 1-4) and kōshū 後集 (satsu 5-6); zenshū: ff. 7, 2, 5, 214; kōshū: ff. 2, 3, 98, 3. (No separate foliation of individual satsu.) 27.9 x 19.7 cm. Fukurotoji. Movable type. Printing frame (text) 22.5 x 15.3 cm; (illustrations) 20.5 × 14.8 cm. Double-line borders all round; thicker outer border round illustrations. Vertical rules between columns. 'Flower petal' fishtail design on hanshin. Kanbun text, with manuscript kunten and kaeriten added not long after date of publication. Some kutōten and shubiki in red. 9 lines to page, 18-19 characters to line. Original pale-fawn front cover of satsu 1 only, now badly rubbed. Renewed title slip with manuscript gedai c. Genna period (1615-24). Gedai and naidai identical. Hashiragaki: Zen 前 (kō 後) + folio no. (except on illustrated pages, which are included in foliation but not numbered). In a modern western style half-leather binding. Edition: Hideyori-ban. In fact the only edition commissioned by Toyotomi Hideyori 豐臣秀賴, and the only movable type edition of this work printed in Japan. Modelled on an illustrated Ming edition dated Wanli 1 万暦元年, 1573. Features of the Ming edition taken over into the Hideyori-ban include: preface (3 ff.) dated Wanli 1 萬曆癸酉仲春吉日; (2) 進圖疏 (ff. 4-7) dated 隆慶六年十二月十八日 (1572); (3) four large characters, 聖•哲•芳•規, one to each page; (4) contents (目録), ff. 1-5, of zenshū; (5) four more large characters, 狂• 愚•覆•轍, characterising contents of kōshū; (6) contents (目録), ff. 1-3 of kōshū; (7) endnote (後序), ff. 1-3, without the batsubun (kango) which is present in some surviving copies of this edition. Contents: Incidents in the lives of Chinese emperors from earliest times to the Song period, illustrating good and evil deeds (the former in satsu 1-4, the latter in satsu 5-6). Material drawn from the Chinese dynastic histories, with commentary (denoted by kai 解) printed one character lower than the main text. Japanese edition of Dijian tushuo.

Access Information

Not Public Record(s)

Unrestricted

Acquisition Information

Acquired from Ernest M. Satow, 22 Sept. 1884.

Other Finding Aids

Kenneth Gardner, Descriptive Catalogue of Japanese books in the British Library printed before 1700 (London and Tenri, 1993).A. Chinese works 漢籍 4. History and biography 歴史•伝記

Bibliography

Kokatsujiban no kenkyū 古活字版の研究, pp. 232-4, 383, 699, pl. 34-5; Kokuritsu kokkai toshokan shozō kichōsho kaidai 国立国会図書館所蔵貴重書解題, vol. 2, pp. 61-2; Tenri toshokan kisho mokuroku 天理図書館稀書目録, vol. 1, p. 102; Yonezawa zenpon no kenkyū to kaidai 米沢善本の研究と解題, p. 136, pl. 15.