Honchō monzui 本朝文粹

Variant title: Shinkan honchō monzui 新刊本朝文粹. Author/compiler: Fujiwara no Akihira 藤原明衡, courtier and scholar, Heian period. Imprint: [Kyōto] , Tanaka Chōzaemon, Kan'ei 6, 1629. Kanki at end of maki 1, fol. 29a reads: 于時寛永六己巳曆卯月吉旦 ／ 玉屋町 田中長左衞門刊之. Description: 15 kan (including one unnumbered maki preceding maki 1, containing prefaces and mokuroku 目録), 8 satsu, rebound in 1 vol. western style. 28.1 x 20.6 cm. Fukurotoji. Movable type. Printing frame 23 x 17.8 cm. Double-line borders with 'flower petal' fishtail design on hanshin. Vertical rules between columns, except on first 4 folios (prefaces). Kanbun text without printed kunten. 9 lines to page, 18 characters to line. Original covers missing, hence no title slips or gedai. Title from naidai. Hashiragaki: Honchō monzui maki 1 (etc.) 本朝文粹巻一 (二, 等) + folio no. Book now bound in half-leather, western style. Edition: This is the only early movable type edition of this work. It was followed by a blockprinted edition in Shōhō 5 (1648). The type is large, clear and well proportioned, like that of two other kokatsuji editions, Shōkei yōran 祥刑要覽 and Inpu gungyoku 韻府群玉, issued by the same publisher in Kan'ei 1 (1624) and Kan'ei 2 (1625) respectively. Contents: An anthology of Chinese poetry and prose composed by Japanese authors during the Heian period, compiled c. 1060. Contains 427 selected pieces by 70 writers, arranged in categories patterned on the 6th century Chinese Wenxuan 文選. The work begins with two prefaces dated Kan'ei 6 (1629), one by Hayashi Razan 林羅山 and the other by Hori Kyōan 堀杏庵; it concludes with a blockprinted batsu by Nawa Dōen 那波道圓, ending: 寛永巳己 (ママ) 夏六月平安後學那波道圜 (ママ) 書于武江之僑居 ／ 玉屋町田中長左衞門開板.

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Acquired from Ernest M. Satow, 22 Sept. 1884.

Kenneth Gardner, Descriptive Catalogue of Japanese books in the British Library printed before 1700 (London and Tenri, 1993).C.Japanese works 和書 4.Literature - kanbun 国文学-漢文

Nihon koten bungaku daijiten 日本古典文学大辞典, vol. 5, pp. 495-6; Kokatsujiban no kenkyū 古活字版の研究, pp. 573, 914, p1. 495; Kokuritsu kokkai toshokan shozō kichōsho kaidai 国立国会図書館所蔵貴重書解題, vol. 2, p. 36; Ryūmon bunko zenpon shomoku 竜門文庫善本書目, p. 162.