Izayoi no nikki いさよひの日記

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

  • Reference
    • GB 59 Or.64.b.29
  • Dates of Creation
    • [1620-1630]
  • Language of Material
    • Japanese
  • Physical Description
    • 1 volume Condition: Very good. Worm damage negligible. Impression: Fairly sharp and clear in general, but marked signs of worn type in places. Seals of ownership: Oblong red seal, Obama-shi zōsho 小汀氏藏書, on first page, and small oval red seal in hiragana, Obama をばま, on last page (both seals of Obama Toshie). Oblong red seal within double border, Okada Tadashi no zōsho 岡田眞之藏書, also on first page.

Scope and Content

Variant title: Izayoi nikki 十六夜日記. Author/compiler: Abutsu-Ni 阿佛尼, waka poet, lady-in-waiting at the imperial court, and afterwards Buddhist nun, d. 1283. Imprint: N.p., n.d. [Genna / early-Kan'ei period, c. 1620-30] . No colophon. Description: 1 kan, 1 satsu. ff. [34] (numbering on inner edge of some folios, not on fore-edge). 27.2 x 18.7 cm. Fukurotoji. Movable type. Printing frame 23.2 x 16.3 cm. No borders. No printed hanshin. Hiragana-majiri text without furigana. 11 lines to page, 20 characters to line. Original dark-brown covers, with renewed manuscript title slip written c. mid-Edo period. Gedai (identical with naidai) : Isayoi no nikki いさよひの日記. In a modern brocade chitsu case. Edition: Earliest printed edition of this work, and the only known kokatsuji 古活字 edition; printed with large-sized type. Contents: Poetic travel diary of Abutsu-ni, describing her journey from Kyōto to Kamakura in search of justice for her son Tamesuke in 1277, and recording correspondence and poems exchanged with friends and relatives during her stay in the Shogun's capital.

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).C.Japanese works 和書 6.Literature - prose 国文-散文 a.Diaries 日記

Bibliography

Kokatsujiban no kenkyū 古活字版の研究, pp. 527-8, 894, pl. 393; Nihon koten bungaku daijiten 日本古典文学大辞典, vol. 1, p. 126; Obama bunko kisho chinpon tenkan nyūsatsu mokuroku 小汀文庫稀書珍本展観入札目録, p. 69, pl. 37; Kōbunsō kohanpon mokuroku 弘文荘古版本目録, p. 232.