Hōjōki no shō 方丈記之抄

This material is held atBritish Library Asia, Pacific and Africa Collections

  • Reference
    • GB 59 16055.c.35
  • Dates of Creation
    • 1658
  • Language of Material
    • Japanese
  • Physical Description
    • 1 volume Condition: Fair. Worm damage to most folios, but chiefly confined to margins. Impression: Atozuri, from moderately worn blocks. Illustrations: 5 single-page sumizuri woodcuts on ff. 2a, 3b, 5b, 12a and 18a, in a style resembling that of Moronobu 師宣 and possibly attributable to him. The illustrations are described in Ryerson Catalogue, p. 41. Seals of ownership: None.

Scope and Content

Variant title: Kamo no chōmei hōjōki no shō 鴨長明方丈記之抄. Variant title: Kashiragaki kamo no chōmei hōjōki 首書鴨長明方丈記. Author/compiler: Kamo no Chōmei 鴨長明, author of original text,1155-1216. Commentary attributed to YAMAOKA Genrin 山岡元隣, 1631-72. Imprint: [Kyōto] , Hasegawa Ichirōbē, Meireki 4, 1658. Kanki on fol. 25b reads: 明暦四戊戌正月吉日 長谷川 ／ 市良兵衛開板. Description: 1 kan, 1 satsu, in a box. ff. 3 (prefatory notes in kanbun and hiragana-majiri, unsigned but dated Meireki 3, 1657), 25. 25.9 x 17.6 cm. Fukurotoji. Blockprint. Printing frame 20.8 x 16 cm. (average). Single-line borders round text and illustrations. No fishtail design on hanshin. Text of Hōjōki 方丈記 in hiragana-majiri, with furigana, dakuten and kutōten, occupying lower two-thirds of each page. Commentary in hiragana-majiri and some kanbun, with printed kunten and kaeriten, in the form of headnotes in upper one-third of each page. 11 lines to page (main text), 16 lines (commentary), variable no. of characters to line. Original dull brown covers, embossed with interlaced rhomboid pattern. Printed title slip on left, with gedai: Kashiragaki 首書 (tsunogaki) Kamo no Chōmei hōjōki 鴨長明方丈記. Naidai at head of introductory notes (fol. 1b) : Kamo no Chōmei hōjōki no shō 鴨長明方丈記之抄. Hashiragaki: Hōjō chū 方丈註 + folio no. Edition: Earliest edition of this commentary., although Kanpon hōjōki shoshi 刊本方丈記書史 cites several fukkoku reprints of later date, beginning with a Shōkai 松會 edition of Tenna 4 天和四年 (1684). The main Hōjōki text contained in the present edition closely resembles that of the first blockprinted edition of Hōjōki itself, published in Shōhō 4 (1647), and was no doubt based on it. Contents: Text of Kamo no Chōmei's Hōjōki 方丈記 (a short zuihitsu work on the ephemeral nature of life and the vanity of human endeavours, written in 1212), with commentary in the form of headnotes attributed to Yamaoka Genrin.

Access Information

Not Public Record(s)

Unrestricted

Acquisition Information

Acquired from Richard Lane, 19 Nov. 1956.

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 6. Literature - prose 国文-散文 b. Zuihitsu 随筆

Bibliography

Nihon koten bungaku daijiten 日本古典文学大辞典, vol. 5, p. 429; Kanpon hōjōki shoshi 刊本方丈記書史 (Appendix to Hōjōki shoshō taisei 方丈記諸抄大成), pp. 10-4; Descriptive catalogue of Japanese and Chinese illustrated books in the Ryerson Library of the Art Institute of Chicago , p. 41.