Sagoromo 狹衣

Archive Unit
  • This material is held at
  • Reference
      GB 59 16055.cc.7
  • Dates of Creation
      1654
  • Language of Material
      Japanese
  • Physical Description
      16 volumes Condition: Very good. A clean copy, with minor worm damage in only 2 satsu. Impression: An early impression, shozuri or near. Illustrations: A total of 48 single-page sumizuri illustrations, distributed as follows: satsu 1, 8; satsu 2, 4; satsu 3, 4; satsu 4, 6; satsu 5, 3; satsu 6, 4; satsu7, 4; satsu 8, 4; satsu 9, 5; satsu 10, 6. Satsu 11-16 contain no illustrations. Seals of ownership: None.

Scope and Content

Variant title: Sagoromo monogatari 狹衣物語. Variant title: Sagoromo shitahimo 狹衣下紐. Author/compiler: Author of original work, Sagoromo, unknown. Author of commentary, Sagoromo shitahimo, SATOMURA Jōha 里村紹邑, 1525-1602. Imprint: [Kyōto] , Tanioka Shichizaemon, Jōō 3, 1654. Kanki on last page of satsu 16 (genealogy keizu 系図) reads: 承應三甲午歳季秋吉辰 ／ 谷岡七左衛門板行. Description: 10 kan (4+4+1+1 kan) in 16 satsu, in a chitsu case. (Satsu 1-maki 1 上) ff. 52; (2-maki 1 下) ff. 43; (3-maki 2 上) ff. 48; (4-maki 2 下) ff. 60; (5-maki 3 上) ff. 43; (6-maki 3 中) ff. 48; (7-maki 3 下) ff. 50; (8-maki 4 上) ff. 48; (9-maki 4 中) ff. 53; (10-maki 4 下) ff. 56; (11-Sagoromo shitahimo 狹衣下紐 maki 1) ff. 52; (12-maki 2) ff. 25; (13-maki 3) ff. 26; (14-maki 4) ff. 17; (15-mokuroku 目録 + nenjo 年序) ff. 13; (16-keizu 系図) ff. 16, [1] . 24.6 x 16.4 cm. Fukurotoji. Blockprint. Printing frame 17.4 x 12 cm. (average). Single-line borders round each individual page. No fishtail design on hanshin. Hiragana-majiri text, with printed dakuten and kutōten, some furigana and interlinear kanji. 11 lines to page, variable no. of characters to line. Renewed pale fawn covers, ornamented with designs of flowers, grasses and trees in gold and silver paint, now somewhat tarnished. Renewed title slips printed in blue and white, manuscript gedai written in various combinations of elegant mana 真名 script, except for the 4 kan of Sagoromo shitahimo which have manuscript gedai in kanji. Title from naidai. Hashiragaki: Sagoromo 狹衣 + maki and part no. +folio no. Edition: First blockprinted edition, and the earliest to combine main text of Sagoromo monogatari with Sagoromo shitahimo. Contents: An early work of fiction, written c. 1070-90, clearly modelled on Genji monogatari 源氏物語 though much inferior to it. Popular among pre-Edo renga poets on account of its graceful waka poems and wealth of poetic allusions.

Access Information

Not Public Record(s)

Unrestricted

Acquisition Information

Acquired from Rinrōkaku, 26 Sept. 1972.

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 a. Early monogatari 古物語

Bibliography

Nihon koten bungaku daijiten 日本古典文学大辞典, vol. 3, pp. 56-8; text of this edition reprinted in Sagoromo monogatari 狹衣物語 (Yūhōdō bunko 有朋堂文庫), including illustrations.