Variant title: Rekidai kunshin zuzō 歷代君臣圖像 [歴代君臣図像]. Variant title: Seikenzō 聖賢像. Author/compiler: Unknown. Imprint: N.p., n.d. [Keichō period, 1596-1615] . No colophon. See notes under Edition below. Description: 2 kan, 2 satsu. (上) ff. 4, 2, 40; (下) ff. 68. 34.2 x 24.8 cm. Fukurotoji. Movable type with blockprinted illustrations. Printing frame 26.6 x 20.7 cm. Double-line borders round all four sides, with 'flower petal' fishtail design on hanshin. Kanbun text without kunten or reading marks. 10 lines to page, 18-19 characters to line. Original glossy vermilion covers, with original printed title slips bearing gedai in gyōsho script: Kunshin zuzō jō 君臣図像上 (ge 下). 1st preface title: Zokukan seikenzu 續刋聖賢圖. 3rd preface title: Rekidai kunshin zuzō 歷代君臣圖像. Title taken from gedai. Hashiragaki: Kunshin zuzō jō 君臣圖像上 (ge 下) + folio no. In a modern chitsu case. Edition: The earliest Japanese edition of this work, which is derived from a Chinese exemplar (vide its three prefaces with Chinese regnal dates corresponding to 1487, 1438 and 1525). Later editions followed, one c. Kan'ei period and one in Keian 4, 1651 (blockprints), both using the same blocks for illustrations. Contents: As above. Brief eulogistic biographies of each personage are printed on the verso of each portrait.
Kunshin zuzō 君臣圖像 [君臣図像]
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- ReferenceGB 59 Or.64.b.27
- Dates of Creation[1596-1615]
- Language of MaterialJapanese
- Physical Description2 volumes Condition: Very good. Few worm holes, unrepaired, mainly in margins. Impression: Clear and sharp. Illustrations: Full-page sumizuri woodcuts portraying early Chinese emperors, statesmen and eminent men of letters, 108 in all, on every folio recto of main text. Believed to be the earliest Japanese printed book to contain portraits of famous men. Seals of ownership: Three red seals on blank leaf at head of each volume: (1) Obama bunko 小汀文庫 (library of Obama Toshie); (2) 百百恭之; (3) Sōken 桑軒.
Scope and Content
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).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. 382, 695-6, 801, 826, pl. 203; Daitōkyū kinen bunko kichōsho kaidai 大東急記念文庫貴重書解題, vol. 3, p. 265; Kōbunsō kohanpon mokuroku 弘文荘古版本目録, p. 222.