Sei Shōnagon inumakura 清少納言犬枕

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

  • Reference
    • GB 59 Or.81.c.2
  • Dates of Creation
    • 1702
  • Language of Material
    • Japanese
  • Physical Description
    • 3 volumes Condition: Good. Minor worm damage outside text area, carefully repaired. Impression: Shozuri or near. Illustrations: Small sumizuri illustrations, within fan-shaped roundels, in pairs on the lower part of ff. 1b and 2a, 4b and 5a, 6b and 7a, 9b and 10a, 13b and 14a, 16b and 17a, 19b and 20a, 24b and 25a, 27b and 28a, 30b and 31a. Seals of ownership: Six red seals on first page of maki 上, five of which are repeated on first page of maki 中 and 下, and two on the last page of all three kan. Seals read: (1) 羽州神山増戸藏書, (2) ... 武藏石濱増戸文庫 ... (Masuto 増戸 was a notable book collector, specialising in Edo literature), (3) 素石園木村藏, (4) 苔香山房之印, (5) 菅譜藏之, (6) 培達堂. (5) and (6) are seals used by Ōkubo Kanpu 大窪菅譜.

Scope and Content

Variant title: Fudekakushi ふてかくし. Author/compiler: Unknown. Imprint: [Edo] , Hiranoya Kichibē, Genroku 15, 1702. Kanki on fol. 35a reads: 元禄拾五壬午正月吉辰 ／ 武陽書林 ／ 平野屋吉兵衛板. Description: 3 kan, 3 satsu. (Maki 上) ff. 1-12; (中) ff. 13-23; (下) ff. 24-35. (Numbering printed at bottom right of each folio recto.) 22.5 x 15.7 cm. Fukurotoji. Blockprint. p. f. 18.8-19.4 x 14.1 cm. Single-line borders. No printed hanshin. Hiragana-majiri text without furigana. 8 lines to page, 18-22 characters to line. Original mid-blue covers, with traces of hand-painted design of grasses, etc. Original printed title slips in centre. gedai: Sei Shōnagon inumakura 清少納言犬枕. Naidai: Fudekakushi ふてかくし. Edition: First, and apparently the only, pre-Meiji edition. Contents: Ukiyo-zōshi novel. A collection of erotic stories loosely based on the pattern of Sei Shōnagon's Makura no sōshi.

Access Information

Not Public Record(s)

Unrestricted

Acquisition Information

Acquired at Tōkyō Kotenkai auction sale, Nov. 1981.

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 5.Literature - fiction 国文-小説 g.Ukiyo-zōshi 浮世草子

Bibliography

Nihon koten bungaku daijiten 日本古典文学大辞典, vol. 1, p. 208; Edo nanpa zakkō 江戸軟派雑考, p. 357.