Wakan meisū 和漢名數 [和漢名数]

Author/compiler: Kaibara Ekiken 貝原益軒, named Atsunobu 篤信, philosopher and Confucian scholar, 1630-1714. Imprint: Rakuyō [Kyōto] , Nagao-shi [=Nagao Heibē 長尾平兵衞] , Genroku 5, 1692. Kanki on fol. 84b reads: 元禄五季壬申初冬吉辰 ／ 洛陽書堂 長尾氏梓行. Description: 1 kan, 1 satsu, rebound in 1 vol. western style. ff. 84. 22.1 x 15.8 cm. Fukurotoji. Blockprint. Printing frame 18.7 x 13.6 cm. (average). Single-line borders. Fishtail design on hanshin. Kanbun text, with printed kunten, okurigana and kaeriten. 9 lines to page, variable no. of characters to line. Original covers missing, hence no gedai. Title from naidai at head of preface and main text. Hashiragaki: Wakan meisū 和漢名數 + folio no. In a western style half-leather binding. Edition: The fourth edition of this work, preceded by the first in Enpō 6 延宝六年 (1678), a reprint in Jōkyō 2 (1685) and an enlarged edition in Genroku 2 (1689). The present edition of Genroku 5 (1692) is described in Kokusho sōmokuroku 国書総目録 as a 'new enlarged 新編増補 ' edition, but no tsunogaki to this effect appears in the present copy (though it may have been printed on the outer title slip, now missing). This edition of 1692 retains the preface dated Genroku 2 元禄二年, signed by Kaibara Atsunobu (=Ekiken), from the 1689 edition. Contents: A short encyclopedia of important numerical categories drawn from Chinese and Japanese sources, with definitions. Subjects are listed under 15 broad headings, e.g. astronomy, geography, history, medicine, etc. A sequel to this work, Zoku wakan meisū 續和漢名數, also by Kaibara Ekiken, was published in 1695.

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Acquired from John Wilson, bookseller, London, 3 Oct. 1871.

Kenneth Gardner, Descriptive Catalogue of Japanese books in the British Library printed before 1700 (London and Tenri, 1993).C. Japanese works 和書 1. Encyclopedias and works of general scope 事典・一般書

Ekiken zenshū 益軒全集, vol. 2.