Kōshokuzu 耕織圖 [耕織図]

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

  • Reference
    • GB 59 16110.b.16
  • Dates of Creation
    • 1676
  • Language of Material
    • Japanese
  • Physical Description
    • 1 volume Condition: Good, apart from minor worm damage to cover and margins of some folios. Impression: Slightly atozuri, from little-worn blocks. Illustrations: 42 double-page sumizuri woodcuts in Chinese style, 21 in each maki, depicting rice-growing, silk production and silk weaving in great detail. All illustrations are modelled on the Chinese original edition of 1462. Seals of ownership: None, but publisher's red seal, Saikyō shikō 西京梓行, appears on fol. 43b of maki 下.

Scope and Content

Author/compiler: Lou Shu 樓璹. Imprint: [Kyōto] , n.d. [Enpō 4, 1676 ?] . No colophon. Batsu on fol. 44a-b of maki 下 is signed and dated as follows: 延寶丙辰夏西京 ／ 居翁跋于素絢堂[印]. Description: 2 kan, formerly in 2 satsu, now rebound in 1 vol. western style. (Maki 上) ff. 3 (序), (後序), 1 (目録), 43; (maki 下) ff. 44. 27.3 x 18.4 cm. Fukurotoji. Blockprint. Printing frame 23.6 x 16.7 cm. (average). Single-line borders. No fishtail design on hanshin. Kanbun text, with printed okurigana and kaeriten (except in reprinted Chinese preface), and kundoku for headings of poems. Light buff front cover of maki 上 only, with renewed central title slip bearing manuscript gedai: 耕圖上. Title from naidai at head of preface and mokuroku. Hashiragaki: Kōshoku jō (ge) 耕織 上 (下) + folio no. In a western style half-leather binding. Edition: Japanese edition based on a Chinese Ming edition with preface dated Tianshun 6 天順六年 (1462). This preface is reprinted in the present edition. Contents: An illustrated work on agriculture (rice) and sericulture, Gengzhitu 耕織図, with an appropriate Chinese poem preceding each mihiraki illustration.

Access Information

Not Public Record(s)

Unrestricted

Acquisition Information

Acquired from William Anderson, 13 Feb. 1894.

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 9. Agriculture 農業

Bibliography

Catalogue of Japanese illustrated books and manuscripts in the Spencer Collection of the New York Public Library, p. 86; Keng Tschi T'u: Ackerbau und Seidegewinnung in China.