Author/compiler: Fujiwara no Kintō 藤原公任, poet and critic, 966-1041. Imprint: [Kyōto] , Nishimura Jirōemon, Shōhō 5, 1648. Kanki on last page of maki 下 reads: 正保五年正月十一日 西村次郎衞門 板写. Description: 2 kan, formerly in 2 satsu, now rebound in 1 vol. western style. (Maki 上) ff. [47]; (maki 下) ff. [52] (folios unnumbered). 27.2 x 19.1 cm. Fukurotoji. Blockprint. Printing frame 25.3 x 17.5 cm. (average). No borders. No printed hanshin. Kanbun text, without kunten, alternating with kana-majiri (chiefly hiragana) text in cursive form. 6-9 lines to page, variable no. of characters to line. Original vermilion front cover of maki 上 and back cover of maki 下 only, with original printed title slip bearing gedai: 倭漢朗詠集 巻上. Title from naidai at head of mokuroku of maki 上 and 下. In a modern western style half-leather binding. Edition: One among the very large number of blockprinted editions of this work published in the Edo period. A noteworthy feature of this edition is that the calligraphy of its hanshita is derived from a manuscript in the hand of Son'en Hōshinnō 尊圓法親王 (1298-1356). This is confirmed by an okugaki in kanbun written by Son'en, printed on the last folio recto of the present copy, which records the copying of an earlier manuscript in the year Enbun 1 延文元年 (1356), the last year of Son'en's life. Contents: An anthology of Chinese verses (couplets) by both Chinese and Japanese poets, and of Japanese waka poems. Contains 587 couplets in Chinese and 217 waka by 80 poets. Among the Chinese poems, those by Bai Juyi 白居易 predominate. All the poems selected were intended for singing to fixed melodies. Compiled by Fujiwara no Kintō in or about 1012-13. An anthology highly influential in later literary tradition.
Wakan rōeishū 倭漢朗詠集
This material is held atBritish Library Asia, Pacific and Africa Collections
- Reference
- GB 59 Or.75.ff.6
- Dates of Creation
- 1648
- Language of Material
- Japanese
- Physical Description
- 1 volume Condition: Very good, apart from regrettable cropping at lower (and probably also upper) edges of leaves, resulting in loss of lower part of a few ji. Book re-backed throughout by urauchi, thus repairing the few former worm holes. Lower corners slightly soiled. Impression: An early impression, shozuri or near. Seals of ownership: None.
Scope and Content
Access Information
Not Public Record(s)
Unrestricted
Acquisition Information
Acquired from the executors of W. G. Aston, 12 Oct. 1912.
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 4. Literature - kanbun 国文学-漢文
Bibliography
Nihon koten bungaku daijiten 日本古典文学大辞典, vol. 6, pp. 344-6; Ryūmon bunko zenpon shomoku 竜門文庫善本書目, p. 133.