[Kadensho] [花傳書]

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

  • Reference
    • GB 59 Or.64.c.33
  • Dates of Creation
    • [1620-1640]
  • Language of Material
    • Japanese
  • Physical Description
    • 1 volume Condition: Few brown stains in maki 3, otherwise very good. Impression: Thick, fuzzy strokes lacking in clarity. Evidence of worn type. Illustrations: Sumizuri woodcuts of flutes (fue 笛) on ff. 13-16 of maki 3, and of human figures on ff. 17-24 of maki 5. Other woodcut sketches passim. Seals of ownership: None. Manuscript notes: Brief note on blank leaf at end of maki 2: 信州松本開之.

Scope and Content

Variant title: Fūshi kaden 風姿花傳 [風姿花伝]. Author/compiler: Zeami Motokiyo 世阿彌元清 (attribution), 1363-1443. Imprint: N.p., n.d. [Genna / Kan'ei period, c. 1620-40] . No colophon. Description: 6 kan (of 8), rebound in 1 vol. (western style). Incomplete copy, lacking maki 4 and 6. Folios numbered only on inner edge, adjacent to spine; not on fore-edge. (1) ff. 20; (2) ff. 18; (3) ff. 30; (5) ff. 33; (7) ff. 35; (8) ff. 17. 27.8 x 20.5 cm. Fukurotoji. Movable type, with illustrations and surrounding text printed from blocks. Printing frame 23.2 x 17.9 cm. No borders. No printed hanshin. Hiragana-majiri text without furigana. 12 lines to page, 19-20 characters to line. Original black front and back covers, within half-leather binding in western style. Manuscript title slip on left added later in a late-Edo hand. Gedai: Nō narabini utai no kojitsuki 能并謡之故實記. No naidai. Edition: Five movable type editions of this work, all undated, are recorded in Kokatsujiban no kenkyū. The present copy differs from all of them, but most closely resembles sub-group 3 of Type 2, Dai nishu-bon (ha) 第二種本 (ハ), copy owned by Tōyō Bunko. The illustrations were newly engraved for editions in Type 2. Contents: A treatise on the ''secret'' principles and practice of nō drama. Compilation attributed to Zeami, based on oral traditions handed down by his father Kan'ami 觀阿彌.

Access Information

Not Public Record(s)

Unrestricted

Acquisition Information

Acquired from Ernest M. Satow, 22 Sept. 1884.

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 8.Literature - poetry 国文-詩歌 b.Nō 能

Bibliography

Nihon koten bungaku daijiten 日本古典文学大辞典, vol. 5, pp. 217-8; Kokatsujiban no kenkyū 古活字版の研究, pp. 562-5, 909.