Kafu 花譜

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

  • Reference
    • GB 59 16115.f.14
  • Dates of Creation
    • 1698
  • Language of Material
    • Japanese
  • Physical Description
    • 3 volumes Condition: Good. A clean copy, with minor worm damage in maki 下 only. Impression: Atozuri, from moderately worn blocks. Seals of ownership: Oblong red seal of Kamiya Katsusada 神谷克楨 on title slip of maki 上: 神谷蔵書. Square red seal of the same owner, in the form Kamiya tosho 神谷圖書, on first page of each maki.

Scope and Content

Author/compiler: Kaibara Ekiken 貝原益軒, named Atsunobu 篤信, philosopher and Confucian scholar, 1630-1714. Imprint: [Kyōto] , Hayashi Kyūbē, Nagaharaya Magobē, Genroku 11, 1698. Okuzuke on fol. 47b of maki 下 reads: 元禄十一年戊寅九月日 ／ 東洞院通夷川上ル町 ／ 林九兵衛 ／ 高辻通雁金屋町 ／ 永原屋孫兵衛 ／ 同梓行. Description: 3 kan, 3 satsu, in a chitsu case. (Maki 上) ff. [1] (跋), 6 (序 + 目録), 24; (maki 中) ff. 58; (maki 下) ff. 47. 22.5 x 15.9 cm. Fukurotoji. Blockprint. Printing frame 18.8 x 14.1 cm. Single-line borders. Fishtail design on hanshin. Hiragana-majiri text, with printed dakuten, kutōten and a few furigana. 10 lines to page, 22-24 characters to line. Original mid-blue covers, with original printed title slips on left. Gedai: Kafu 花譜. Title from mokurokudai and naidai at head of each maki. Hashiragaki: 花譜巻上 (中, 下) + folio no. Edition: First edition, published in Genroku 11 (1698). Other editions followed in Tenpō 15 (1844) and Ansei 3 (1856). Contents: A botanical work describing plants and trees in seasonal order of flowering, with hints on their cultivation. Preface by the author, dated Genroku 7 (1694).

Access Information

Not Public Record(s)

Unrestricted

Acquisition Information

Acquired by purchase, 14 April 1958.

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 14. Physical sciences 自然科学 b. Botany, including materia medica 本草学

Bibliography

Kokusho kaidai 国書解題, p. 541; Honzō kankei tosho mokuroku 本草関係図書目録, pp. 16 (Shirai), 6 (Ueno).