Jinkōki 塵劫記

Author/compiler: Yoshida Mitsuyoshi 吉田光由, 1598-1672. Imprint: N.p., n.d. [Kan'ei period, 1624-44] . No colophon. Description: Incomplete copy, comprising maki 1 and maki 2 (to fol. 34) only (of 4 kan), lacking also first folio of maki 1. (Maki 1) ff. 2-38a; (maki 2) ff. 1-34. 18.2 x 13.8 cm. Fukurotoji. Blockprint. Printing frame variable between 14.5 and 15.5 x 12.4 cm. Single-line borders in some areas, elsewhere none. No fishtail design on hanshin. Hiragana-majiri text without furigana. Variable no. of lines to page, but mostly 10; 18-22 characters to line. Grey-green front cover, old but not original, of maki 1 only, embossed with a geometrical design. Renewed title slip on left, with manuscript gedai in a late-Edo or early- Meiji hand: 往古板明暦以前刻本 ／ 塵功記 完 [sic-this copy is incomplete and was obviously printed at least 20 years earlier than Meireki period] . Naidai at head of mokuroku of maki 2: ちんこうき. Hashiragaki on narrow hanshin: Jin 塵 + maki no. + folio no. In a western style half-leather binding. Edition: During the Kan'ei period this work was published in a very large number of different editions, some in 3 kan, some in 4 and some in 5, each with a different number of constituent sections (jō 条). The earliest edition, in 4 kan, was published in Kan'ei 4 (1627), and the last dated edition in Kan'ei 20 (1643). The present copy is judged to belong to a variant (異版) of the small-format edition published in Kan'ei 11 (1634) in the name of the author (自署), Yoshida Mitsuyoshi 吉田光由. A complete copy of this edition would contain the following kanki in maki 4: 寛永十壹年戌八月八日 ／ 吉田七兵衛 ／ 光由 (花押). The chief interest of this edition lies in its use of colour printing for certain numerals, kutōten, etc. on ff. 12-16 of maki 1 (and in maki 4 of a complete copy). The original red ink of this colour printing has oxidised to a silvery colour in the present copy. Apart from the use of colour printing in certain Kirishitan-ban キリシタン版 published by the Jesuit Mission Press, this must be one of the earliest examples of colour printing in Japan. (N.B. Other variants of the same 1634 edition are printed only in black.). Contents: The second earliest extant work on traditional Japanese mathematics (Warizansho 割算書 by Mōri Shigeyoshi 毛利重能 preceding it by a few years). The many published editions of this work testify to its wide popularity and influence in the Edo period.

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Donated to the British Museum by (Sir) Ernest M. Satow 13 June 1885.

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 a. Mathematics 数学

Nihon koten bungaku daijiten 日本古典文学大辞典, vol. 3, p. 461; Ryūmon bunko zenpon shomoku 竜門文庫善本書目, p. 138; Ogura bunko mokuroku 小倉文庫目録, pp. 1-2; Jinkōki no kenkyū, zuroku hen 塵劫記の研究・図録編, pp. 217-35 and passim; Meiji-zen Nihon sūgakushi 明治前日本数学史, vol. 1, pp. 192-202; Kan'ei-ban jinkōki no ruihan 寛永版塵劫記の類版, in Shoshigaku 書誌学, vol. 12, no. 3, pp. 18-24.