Variant title: Daihō bumo onjū-gyō 大報父母恩重經 [大報父母恩重経]. Variant title: Bumo onjū-gyō 父母恩重經 [父母恩重経]. Author/compiler: Unknown. Imprint: N.p., n.d. [late-Nanbokuchō period, c. 1383-92 ?] . Incomplete copy, lacking kango. See under Edition below. Description: 1 kan, 1 jō 帖, in 22= folds. 24.5 x 10.5 cm. (each half-fold). Orihon. Blockprint. Printing frame (height) 20.8-21 cm. Single-line borders above and below text. No vertical rules between columns. Kanbun text with manuscript kunten dating from late-Muromachi period. 6 lines to half-fold, 17 characters to line. Original (?) grey-green covers without title slip. Central handwritten gedai: 佛説大報父母恩重經. Naidai and gedai identical. Printed on kōzo paper. Edition: Gozan-ban. In the absence of a printed (or even handwritten) kanki the present copy cannot be definitely assigned to the first printed edition, that published by the monk Dōyū 道祐 in Eitoku 3 永徳三年, 1383. It differs slightly in jikei (字形) from the only published reproduction of a fold from that edition (GK, pl. 302), from a copy in Kokkai without printed kango. The BL copy lacks the final fold, which would have contained a further nine lines of text. A complete copy of the Eitoku 3 edition has the following kango: 右爲法界群生 刋削此經者也 ／ 又擬先妣壽法禪尼三十三囘之追孝重開板而已 ／ 永德三年癸亥九月十七日願主道祐謹刋. This work circulated widely in Korea, and the Eitoku 3 (1383) edition is believed to be a reprint based (text and illustrations) on a Korean exemplar. Two other illustrated editions were published in Meitoku 3 明徳三年 (1392) and Meiō 8 明応八年 (1499), but comparison with the illustrations from those editions published in Nihon kohanga shūsei 日本古版画集成 shows that the present copy belongs to neither of these. It seems most likely to be a reprint, from re-cut blocks, of the Eitoku 3 edition, if not of that edition itself. Contents: A non-canonical work by an unknown Buddhist layman of the Song period, based on the Fumu enzhong-jing 父母恩重經 (Japanese: Bumo onjū-gyō), TT, vol. 85, no. 2887, an anonymous composition of the Tang period. It expounds the limitless love of parents, especially mothers, for their children and the obligation to repay it owed by children to their parents.
Bussetsu daihō bumo onjūgyō 佛説大報父母恩重經 [仏説大報父母恩重経]
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- ReferenceGB 59 Or.64.b.17
- Dates of Creation[1382-1392]
- Language of MaterialJapanese
- Physical Description1 volume Condition: Some discolouration of pages due to staining and frequent handling. Minimal worm damage, neatly repaired. Book re-backed throughout. Upper edges cropped, resulting in loss of some manuscript notes. Last 9 lines of text missing, as well as kango. Impression: Not shozuri, but for the most part and clear. Illustrations: A sequence of 21 sumizuri woodcuts, 13 of full-page (=half-fold) size and 8 of two-thirds page size. The first depicts the Buddha, with attendants, honouring a human skeleton; the following group of 10 illustrate the ten expressions of mother love; the next 8 show the difficulty of children in repaying that love adequately; and the last two indicate ways of repaying it and thus sparing parents from the torments of hell. This is one of the earliest Japanese books to contain such copious illustrations. Seals of ownership: Two oval red seals, Obama をばま (ex-libris Obama Toshie) and Zanka shooku 殘花書屋 (ex-libris Togawa Zanka 戸川殘花) on first half-fold. The same seal, Obama をばま, and an unidentified square red seal on last half-fold. Manuscript notes: Textual notes in upper and lower margins and on first two folds of text. A signature, 信向之, appears on front cover.
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).B. Buddhist works 仏書 12. Miscellaneous scriptures 雑経
Bibliography
Bussho kaisetsu daijiten 仏書解説大辞典, vol. 7, p. 490 and vol. 9, p. 206; Gozanban no kenkyū 五山版の研究, pp. 178, 416, pl. 302; Butten kaidai daijiten 仏典解題事典, p. 74; Kokuritsu kokkai toshokan shozō kichōsho kaidai 国立国会図書館所蔵貴重書解題, vol. 1, p. 13; Kōbunsō kohanpon mokuroku 弘文荘古版本目録, p. 112; Nihon kohanga shūsei 日本古版画集成, text vol. pp. 165-6, plates vol. 2, pl. 13-4, 26.