Jizō bosatsu hongangyō 地藏菩薩本願經 [地蔵菩薩本願経]

  • This material is held at
  • Reference
      GB 59 Or.64.b.13
  • Dates of Creation
      1306
  • Language of Material
      Japanese
  • Physical Description
      3 volumes Condition: Good. Much of maki 上 has been re-backed, but some worm damage has occurred since urauchi. Impression: An early impression, sharp and clear. Seals of ownership: None, other than Getsumeisō 月明莊, seal of Kōbunsō. Manuscript notes: Kunten and reading marks as noted above. Also two important dated shikigo following the printed ganmon: one in black ink dated Shōwa 4 (1315), reading 奉施入 / 正和四年霜月廿四日法願長賢; the other in red ink dated Keichō 18 (1613), reading 慶長十八年癸丑二月上旬句切畢為利益衆生也識算敬白.

Scope and Content

Author/compiler:. Translator: Śikṣānanda (Japanese: Jisshananda 實叉難陀), Buddhist monk from Khotan who came to China in 695. Imprint: [Nara] , Kōfukuji, Kagen 4, 1306. Ganshu: Kakushō 覺性. Dated ganmon on 2 half-folds at end of maki 下 reads: 地蔵菩薩本誓願 釋尊切利附属説 / 此経所明發信心 故更刻模傳未来 / 以此功徳及法界 先救三途極重苦 / 人天厭離生死海 自他同獲菩薩化 / 嘉元四年丙午六月廿四日願主南都興福寺僧 / 覺性. Description: 3 kan, 3 jō 帖. 25.3 x 9.6 cm. (each half-fold). Orihon. Blockprint. Printing frame (height) 20.5 cm. Printed on thick ganpi paper. No borders or vertical rules. Kanbun text, with manuscript kunten and kaeriten in black and kutōten in red. 5 lines to single fold, 17 characters to line. Dark blue covers, old but not original, with renewed yellow title slips in centre. Handwritten gedai: Jizō bosatsu hongan-gyō maki jō 地蔵菩薩本願經巻上 (chū 中, ge 下). Contained in a hand-lettered paulownia wood box. Edition: Kasuga-ban, printed at the Kōfukuji, Nara, using thick black ink and a bold, regular style of script. First printed edition of this work. Given the close link between the Kōfukuji and the Kasuga Jinja, ancestral shrine of the Fujiwara family in Nara, and the status of Jizō Bosatsu (Kṣitigarbha) as the Bodhisattva manifested in the Kasuga deity, this was an appropriate work to be published by the Kōfukuji. Another pre-Edo edition (copy owned by the Ryūmon Bunko) was published in Ōan 6, 1373 (see Gozan-ban no kenkyū 五山版の研究, pp. 132, 381). Contents: Chinese translation, attributed to Śiksānanda, of the Kṣitigarbha-praṇidhāna-sūtra, concerning the vow of the Boddhisattva Jizō to save suffering humanity until the coming of the future Buddha, Maitreya. One of the few works of popular Buddhism among the many erudite Kasuga-ban publications.

Access Information

Not Public Record(s)

Unrestricted

Acquisition Information

Acquired from Kōbunsō, 15 March 1974.

Other Finding Aids

Kenneth Gardner, Descriptive Catalogue of Japanese books in the British Library printed before 1700 (London and Tenri, 1993).B. Buddhist works 仏書 12. Miscellaneous scriptures 雑経

Bibliography

Bussho kaisetsu daijiten 仏書解説大辞典, vol. 4, p. 275; Nara kangyōshi 寧楽刊経史, pp. 135-6; Butten kaidai daijiten 仏典解題事典, p. 98; Kōbunsō kohanpon mokuroku 弘文荘古版本目録, p. 76; Yasuda bunko kohan shomoku 安田文庫古版書目 (十一), in Shoshigaku 書誌学, vol. 3, no. 3; Kokatsujiban no kenkyū 古活字版の研究, p. 31.