Author/compiler: Shaotan 紹曇, also known as Xisou 希叟, 13th century. Imprint: N.p., Myōha 妙葩, Jōwa 5, 1349. Kanki on last page reads: 貞和己丑仲冬寓于亀山雲居僧妙葩命工刋行. Description: 1 kan (formerly in 4 kan), 1 satsu, rebound in western style. Incomplete copy, comprising ff. 69-128 only; ff. 1-68 lacking. 24.5 x 15.3 cm. Fukurotoji. Blockprint. Printing frame 17.9-18.5 x 12.6 cm. Single-line borders above and below text; double-line borders (one thick, one thin) on inner edge of each leaf. Vertical rules between columns. Fishtail design on hanshin. Kanbun text, with handwritten kunten and kaeriten in black (Muromachi period) and reading marks in red. 11 lines to page, 20 characters to line. A substantial part of the old front cover, reddish-brown, typical of Gozan editions, remains. Matching brick-red paper (Edo period ?) has been pasted over upper and lower areas to reinforce the original cover. Back cover lacking. Book now rebound in half-leather, western style. No title slip or gedai. No naidai, except Shōshūsan shū 正宗讃終 on fol. 128. Hashiragaki: Shō 正 + folio no. (foliation continuous). Edition: Gozan-ban. One of three works related to Zen, all published in Jōwa 5 (1349) by the Rinzai monk Shun'oku Myōha 春屋妙葩, founder of the Shōkokuji 相國寺 sect of Zen, 1311-88. All three works have the same format and hanshiki, and all have similar kanki dated Jōwa 5. The present work appears to have been reprinted many times from the same blocks. New editions were printed from movable type in Keichō 13, 1608. Contents: Brief lives of 77 Chan patriarchs and eminent monks of the five Chinese Chan sects, with an eulogistic verse on each, compiled in 1254.
Goke shōshūsan 五家正宗賛
This material is held atBritish Library Asia, Pacific and Africa Collections
- Reference
- GB 59 ORB 30/152
- Dates of Creation
- 1349
- Language of Material
- Japanese
- Physical Description
- 1 volume Condition: Good, considering that only half of the book survives. Wormholes in cover and upper margins repaired by urauchi. Re-backed throughout. Impression: Atozuri, from heavily worn blocks. Seals of ownership: None. Manuscript notes: Numerous textual notes in upper and lower margins, in a Muromachi period hand like the kunten. Detached sheet of text in the same hand inserted between ff. 110 and 111. Large characters (also Muromachi period) at top right of front cover. Two notes added on last page, preceding kanki: (1) 雪邊此二字見于唐本, (2) 王佺刋.
Scope and Content
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).B. Buddhist works 仏書 11. Zen sect 禅宗
Bibliography
Gozanban no kenkyū 五山版の研究, pp. 120-1, 376, pl. 135; Kokatsujiban no kenkyū 古活字版の研究, p. 338; Kokuritsu kokkai toshokan shozō kichōsho kaidai 国立国会図書館所蔵貴重書解題, vol. 1, p. 42; Ryūmon bunko zenpon shomoku 竜門文庫善本書目, p. 125; Kyūkan eifu 旧刊影譜, no. 37, pl. 67-8; Shinzan zenseki mokuroku 新纂禅籍目録, pp. 105-6.