[Kanze-ryū utaibon (11 works) 観世流謡本 (十一番)]

Variant title: Yōkyoku hyakuban 謠曲百番 [謡曲百番 ]. Variant title: Kōetsu utaibon 光悦謠本 [光悦謡本]. Author/compiler: Unknown. Imprint: N.p., n.d. [Saga, near Kyōto, Keichō period, c. 1600-10] . No colophon. All Saga-bon editions of this work are believed to have been published mid-Keichō-early Genna period. Description: 11 kan, 11 jō 帖, in a paulownia wood box. Each jō consists of two thread-sewn sections of 3-5 sheets folded at the spine and bound together in tetchō 綴葉装 style. Folios unnumbered. 24 x 18.1 cm. Movable type. Printing frame 20.5 x 17 cm. (approx.). No borders. Text printed on both sides of paper. Hiragana-majiri text, with printed fushi (節) and other indications of chanting alongside text and in upper margins. 7 lines to page, 13 characters to line. Original thick paper covers, treated with gofun and overprinted with large-scale designs of flowers, birds, formal patterns, etc., in mica, tinted yellow in two cases. All covers are white, except for Dōjōji 道成寺 and Ōmu komachi 鸚鵡小町 (pale salmon-pink) and Ama 蜑 (pale grey). Text paper: thick ganpi treated with gofun and overprinted faintly with mica designs in the style of Kōetsu 光悦, similar to those on covers. Original title slips on brown tōshi paper, with printed gedai modelled on the calligraphy of Kōetsu. Titles from gedai. Edition: Saga-bon. Arguably the finest of all productions of the Saga press. The mica designs on covers and text pages and the mastery of book design shown in type-cutting, impression, ornamentation and binding all suggest that the work was done under the supervision of Kōetsu himself. The hanshita, according to tradition, is based on Kōetsu's own calligraphy, as is that of the printed title slips. Of the present set of 11 vols, 10 correspond most closely to Type no. 1 (第一種本) in the classification of editions by style of script and by ornamentation, set out in Kokatsujiban no kenkyū pp. 449-51. The only point of difference lies in the colour of the text paper which is white in all cases; none of the 10 vols. contains paper of varying colours. The remaining volume, Ōmu komachi 鸚鵡小町, contains no mica ornamentation on the text pages, only on the pink outer cover. The text is printed on gofun-treated paper tinted variously in pale blue, yellow, pink and white. Contents: Libretti of 11 nō plays (out of a set of 100 百番, or more) of the Kanze school, pointed for practical use by a chanter. Titles: Adachigahara 安達原, Ama 蜑, Bashō 芭蕉, Dōjōji 道成寺, Hanagatami はながたみ, Hyakuman 百萬, Ōmu komachi 鸚鵡小町, Shiga 志賀, Shigehira しげひら, Uneme うめの, Utou うとふ.

Unrestricted

Acquired from Kōbunsō, 14 April 1958 , except for Ōmu komachi 鸚鵡小町, acquired from R. C. Rudolph, 16 Dec. 1957.

Kenneth Gardner, Descriptive Catalogue of Japanese books in the British Library printed before 1700 (London and Tenri, 1993). C. Japanese works 和書 8. Literature - poetry 国文-詩歌 b. Nō 能

Kokatsujiban no kenkyū 古活字版の研究, pp. 448-67, 856-69; Saga-bon zukō 嵯峨本図考, pp. 56-70; Kōzan bunko-bon no kenkyū, utaibon no bu 鴻山文庫本の研究・謡本之部, pp. 146-243; Catalogue of Japanese illustrated books and manuscripts in the Spencer Collection of the New York Public Library, pp. 74-5; Ryūmon bunko zenpon shomoku 竜門文庫善本書目, pp. 157-9.