Senchaku hongan nenbutsushū 選擇本願念佛集 [選択本願念仏集]

Alternative reading of title: Senjaku hongan nenbutsushū. Variant title: Senchakushū 選擇集 [選択集]. Author/compiler: Genkū 源空, founder of the Jōdo sect, also known as Hōnen Shōnin 法然上人, 1133-1212. Imprint: N.p., n.d. [En'ō 1, 1239 ?] . Printed kanki lacking. Kanki copied in manuscript on last folio verso reads: 延應第一之暦沽洗第六之天挍根源 ／ 正本直展轉錯謬即寫印字用令流布矣. See under Edition below. Description: 1 kan (but divisible into 2 kan between ff. 58 and 59), formerly in 1 jō, now rebound in 1 vol. western style. ff. [130] . Each folded pair of leaves from the original detchō-bound book has a printed running number, prefixed by sen 選, at the inner (binding) edge, now almost hidden by the western-style sewing. 24.2 x 16.3 cm. Folios printed on both sides. Blockprint. Printing frame 19.8-20.2 x 12.4 cm. All-round single-line borders and vertical rules between columns, originally painted gold (not printed), now a dull olive-green. Specks of gold are still apparent through the green, suggesting that the gold paint used to trace the lines contained an element of copper which oxidised green. The lines may have been drawn at, or soon after, the time of printing. Kanbun text without printed kunten. 6 lines to page, 16-17 characters to line. Dark blue front cover, dating from Kamakura period, ornamented with gold and silver kirihaku and silver dust. Back cover not preserved. Title slip missing. No gedai. Title from naidai at head of text. Text paper: thick, fibrous ganpi, lightly sprinkled with mica dust. Last leaf of text is of different quality paper, thick but later in date, to which a piece of older paper having the same green borders and rules as the text paper has been attached. This last leaf is not sprinkled with mica. Edition: Jōdokyō-ban. An edition dated En'ō 1 延応元年 (1239), to which the present copy may possibly belong, is believed to be the earliest surviving edition of this work. The present copy is either of that edition (vide handwritten kanki) or a reprint of it, printed from re-cut blocks. Later (pre-Edo) editions were published in Kenchō 3 建長三年 (1251), Shōchū 2 正中二年 (1325) and Eikyō 11 永享十一年 (1439), as well as several undated editions. Contents: Fundamental justification of the beliefs of the Jōdo sect, written by Genkū (Hōnen Shōnin) in 1198 at the request of Fujiwara no Kanezane 藤原兼實. Based on the Jōdo sanbukyō 浄土三部經, the work claims that nenbutsu is the only way to salvation.

Unrestricted

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

Kenneth Gardner, Descriptive Catalogue of Japanese books in the British Library printed before 1700 (London and Tenri, 1993). B. Buddhist works 仏書 4. Jōdo, jōdo shinshū sects 浄土・浄土真宗

Bussho kaisetsu daijiten 仏書解説大辞典, vol. 6, pp. 347, 359; Butten kaidai daijiten 仏典解題事典, p. 262; Kokatsujiban no kenkyū 古活字版の研究, pp. 44, 792; Jōdokyō-ban no kenkyū 浄土教版の研究, pp. 36, 56, 62, 68, 96, 101, 110, 126, 131; Butsuzō butten kaisetsu jiten 仏像仏典解説事典, pp. 532-40; Nihon koinsatsu bunkashi 日本古印刷文化史, p. 477.