Tsurezuregusa 徒然草

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

  • Reference
    • GB 59 Or.59.b.30
  • Dates of Creation
    • [1620-1644]
  • Language of Material
    • Japanese
  • Physical Description
    • 1 volume Condition: Good, apart from creasing of first 8 leaves. Impression: Clear and sharp. Shozuri or near. Seals of ownership: None.

Scope and Content

Author/compiler: Yoshida Kenkō 吉田兼好, c. 1283-1352, known as Kenkō Hōshi 兼好法師. Imprint: N.p., Sugita Ryōan (Gen'yo), n.d. [late-Genna period, c. 1620-24] . Kanki (printed, unusually, at end of maki 上) reads: 杉田良菴玄与開板. Description: 2 kan, formerly in 2 satsu, now rebound in 1 vol. western style. (Maki 上) ff. [94]; (maki 下) ff. [77] (folios unnumbered). 24.9 x 18.7 cm. Fukurotoji. Blockprint, modelled on a movable type edition. Printing frame 22 x 17 cm. No borders. No printed hanshin. Hiragana-majiri text, with printed furigana (katakana) and kutōten. 10 lines to page, 17 characters to line. Renewed front cover of maki 上 only (mid-Edo period), within western style half-leather binding. Handwritten title slip on left, with black border. No naidai. Title from handwritten gedai: 徒連 [踊字 = 徒連] 艸. Edition: The earliest blockprinted edition of this work, printed at a time when movable type editions were still being issued in large numbers. Easily mistaken for movable type, as it closely resembles the first (第一種) Saga-bon edition, ornamented with mica designs. Contents: A miscellany of short notes, anecdotes, meditative jottings, reminiscences and fragments of narrative, composed c. 1330.

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

Bibliography

Kokatsujiban no kenkyū 古活字版の研究, pp. 446, 501-2, 856, 892; Daitōkyū kinen bunko kichōsho kaidai 大東急記念文庫貴重書解題, vol. 3, p. 88; Zenpon eifu 善本影譜, series 2, vol. 4; Kanazawa bunko zōsho mokuroku, Kenkō tsurezuregusa shohon hen 金沢文庫蔵書目録・兼好徒然草諸本篇, p. 3.