Bunrui gappeki zuzō kukai kunshin koji 分類合璧圖像句解君臣故事 [分類合璧図像句解君臣故事]

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

  • Reference
    • GB 59 ORB 30/196
  • Dates of Creation
    • [1360-1370]
  • Language of Material
    • Japanese
  • Physical Description
    • 1 volume Condition: Fair. Worm damage only minimal, but brown water stains on first 12 folios and ink stains towards end of maki 下. Split folios attached with paste at outer edge, and some upper corners repaired by urauchi. Impression: Blocks show some signs of wear and uneven inking. Illustrations: A sumizuri woodcut occupies the upper part (slightly less than half) of each page. Each depicts an incident from the text printed below. As noted above, these illustrations may not come directly from the Yuan original but from an intermediate Korean edition no longer extant. Seals of ownership: Rectangular red seal, Shōikan zōshoki 稱意館藏書記 (seal of Yoshida Ian 吉田意安), and square red seal printed inkoku, Hōkō 鳳岡, on first page of mokuroku 目録. Small oval red seal, Ōhashi 大橋 (seal of Ōhashi Nagahiro 大橋長熹?), on first and last pages of text. Manuscript notes: One short note in an early hand, erased and illegible, on last folio verso.

Scope and Content

Variant title: Kunshin koji 君臣故事. Variant title: Zuzō gappeki kunshin koji kukai 圖像合璧君臣故事句解 [図像合璧君臣故事句解]. Author/compiler: Unknown. Imprint: N.p., n.d. [Nanbokuchō period, c. 1360-70] . No colophon. Description: 2 kan, 1 satsu, rebound in 1 vol. western style. (上) ff. 2 (目録), 34; (下) ff. 34. 23.8 x 14.2 cm. Fukurotoji. Blockprint. Printing frame 17-18.3 x 11.5 cm. Single-line borders above and below text. Double-line borders at inner edges of each leaf. Vertical rules between columns, and horizontal rules dividing illustrations from text on each page. Fishtail design on hanshin. Kanbun text without kunten. Headings in mokuroku 目録 and in text printed inkoku within small oval cartouches. 10 lines to page (double for commentary), 11-14 characters to line. Pale grey-green front cover only, old but not original, without title slip. Manuscript gedai in a late-Edo hand: Kunshin koji kukai kan 君臣故事句解 完. Title from naidai at head of text. Title at head of mokuroku: Zuzō gappeki kunshin koji kukai 圖像合璧君臣故事句解. Hashiragaki: characters 事 (in sōsho form) jō 上 (ge 下) + folio no. In a western style half-leather binding. Edition: Gozan-ban, one of the few to contain illustrations. Reprint, from new blocks, of an earlier Chinese edition of Yuan period. The style of illustrations suggests that they may derive from a Korean original, but the Chinese origin of the text is attested by three phrases from the original Yuan imprint, 惟善書堂 (in a bell-shaped frame), 四明楊氏 (in a rectangle) and 伯肇 (framed in the shape of a bronze vessel), reprinted at the end of the 目録. Later Japanese editions of this work followed in Enpō 2 (1674) and Genroku 2 (1689). Contents: A didactic work for young people of the buke 武家 class, drawing on anecdotes and allusions from Chinese history and legend illustrating the Confucian virtues.

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).A. Chinese works 漢籍 1. Encyclopedias 事典・類書

Bibliography

Gozanban no kenkyū 五山版の研究, pp. 29, 154, 202, 215, 466, pl. 392-3; Kokatsujiban no kenkyū 古活字版の研究, pp. 77, 97; Zenpon eifu 善本影譜, series 3, vol. 8; Kokusho sōmokuroku 国書総目録, vol. 7, p.