Shittan sanmitsushō 悉曇三密鈔 [悉曇三密抄]

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

  • Reference
    • GB 59 ORB 30/145
  • Dates of Creation
    • 1682
  • Language of Material
    • Japanese
  • Physical Description
    • 1 volume Condition: Parts of ff. 1-2 of maki 中 damaged and text supplemented in manuscript Otherwise good. Impression: Atozuri. Slight signs of block wear. Seals of ownership: Red oblong seal of Sir Ernest Satow, 英國薩道藏書, on first page of preface.

Scope and Content

Author/compiler: Jōgon 淨嚴, Shingon scholar-monk, 1639-1702. Imprint: N.p.. Shōzaemon, Tenna 2, 1682. Kanki on last page of maki 下 reads: 天和貳稔壬戌季夏初朔日曜鬼宿 經士 庄左衞門 梓行. (For date in preface, 1684, see below.). Description: 3 kan (上, 中, 下), formerly in 7 satsu, now rebound in 1 vol. western style. (上) ff. 4, 6, 7, 69; (中) ff. 97; (下) ff. 161. 27.2 x 19.1 cm. Fukurotoji. Blockprint. Printing frame 23-23.7 x 17.8 cm. Single-line borders. No fishtail design on hanshin. Kanbun text with printed katakana kunten and kaeriten. Text interspersed with siddham characters and many columns of siddham script. 10 lines to page, 20 characters to line. Original mid-blue covers, within a western style cloth binding. Original printed title slip on left, bearing gedai: 不許重刻 [梵字] (角書) 三密鈔. Title from naidai at head of preface. Hashiragaki: [Shittan (in siddham script) ] sanmitsushō [梵字] 三密鈔巻上 (中, 下) + folio no. Edition: The only recorded Edo-period edition seems to be that of Tenna 2, 1682. The present copy, however, although ending with the usual kanki dated Tenna 2, opens with a 4-folio preface in a hanshiki different from the rest of the text, signed by the monk Unshō 運敞 and dated Jōkyō 1, 1684. Preface ends: 貞享元年歳在甲子抄秋吉旦 ／ 瑞應老比丘泊如運敞敬題. Contents: On the origins, phonology, grammar and meaning of Sanskrit expressed in siddham script, extending also to its significance in interpreting Shingon doctrine. For details of the author, Jōgon, see Nihon bukka jinmei jisho 日本仏家人名辞書 (Washio, J.), pp. 662-7.

Access Information

Not Public Record(s)

Unrestricted

Acquisition Information

Purchased by the British Museum from Rev. Andrew Patton, Ballymena 7 April 1906.

Other Finding Aids

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

Bibliography

Bussho kaisetsu daijiten 仏書解説大辞典, vol. 4, p. 346.