Shittan jiki kikigaki 悉曇字記聞書

Variant title: Shittan jiki shō 悉曇字記鈔 [悉曇字記抄]. Author/compiler: Yūkai 宥快, Shingon monk of Kōyasan, 1345-1416, compiler of commentary. Zhiguang 智廣, Chinese monk, d. 806, author of original work. Imprint: N.p., n.d. [c. Kanbun 寛文 period, 1661-73 ?] . No colophon. Description: 6 kan, formerly in 6 satsu, now rebound in 1 vol. western style. (1) ff. 23; (2) ff. 22; (3) ff. 27; (4) ff. 19; (5) ff. 33; (6) ff. 30. 26.8 x 17.5 cm. Fukurotoji. Blockprint. Printing frame 21.9 x 15.3 cm. (average). Single-line borders. 'Flower petal' fishtail design on hanshin. Kanbun text, including some siddham script, with printed okurigana and kaeriten. 14 lines to page, 19 characters to line. Mid-brown front cover of satsu 1 only, with title slip added on left bearing manuscript gedai: Shittan jiki shō 悉曇字記鈔. Title from naidai at head of each maki. Hashiragaki: Jiki 字記 + maki no. + folio no. In a western style half-leather binding. Edition: No dated edition of this work is recorded, but the present copy appears to have been printed in or after the Kanbun period (1661-73). Numerous editions of the original work, Shittan jiki 悉曇字記, on which this is a commentary, were published before and during the Edo period. The earliest recorded edition was a Kōya-ban dated Kōan 3 弘安三年 (1280). Note that two other works with the alternative title Shittan jiki shō, with commentary by different writers, were published during the 17th century. Contents: An extensive commentary on Zhiguang's Xitan ziji 悉曇字記, a work of instruction in the use of siddham script for religious purposes written in the early 9th century. The present commentary was composed in the 14th or early 15th century.

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Acquired from Alexander von Siebold, 22 July 1868.

Kenneth Gardner, Descriptive Catalogue of Japanese books in the British Library printed before 1700 (London and Tenri, 1993).B. Buddhist works 仏書 9. Shingon sect 真言宗

Bussho kaisetsu daijiten 仏書解説大辞典, vol. 4, p. 348; Mikkyō daijiten 密教大辞典, vol. 2, p. 999.