Hiroki Kikuchi, "Letting the Copy out of the Window: a history of Copying Texts in Japan", The East Asian Library Journal 4, no. (2010): 120-157

copying texts in japan    123

In the early eleventh century, Ōjōyōshū (Selection on Rebirth [in Pure Land]) 

written by Genshin (942–1017), strongly influenced the establishment of Pure 

Land Buddhism in Japan. Although the oldest Ōjōyōshū manuscript copy extant 

today was produced by hand in 996, while Genshin was still alive and only eleven 

years after he had completed the text, it was about two hundred years later, in 

1171, that the oldest extant printed copy was produced.

9

 Even though it was 

reprinted in 1210 and 1253, these printed exemplars are rare today. Thus, in spite 

of the fact that Ōjōyōshū was widely influential, monks at the time did not tend 

to mass-produce it by printing. (See figure 2.)

 

This brings up the question of why this text was not printed soon after 

the  completion.  On  this  point  one  can  consider  the  case  of  Senchaku  hongan 

nenbutsushū (Selection on the Choice of the Original Vow of Amida Buddha), 

a famous commentary for Pure Land Buddhism written by Hōnenbō Genkū 

2.  Ōjōyōshū (Selection of Rebirth in Pure Land), version printed in the Kenchō period

(1249–1255). Exemplar in the library of Ryūkoku University.

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124    hiroki kikuchi

(1133–1212). Though it was printed soon after Genkū’s death, he never intended 

it for the public use. Senchaku hongan nenbutsushū was originally dedicated to Kujō 

Kanezane (1149–1207).

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 Hōnen asked Kanezane never to show it to others because 

Hōnen was afraid there would be those who would misunderstand his ideas; he 

permitted only a small number of disciples to copy Senchaku hongan nenbutsushū.

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When Hōnen condoned a copy, he wrote the title in his own hand in order to 

reveal that his discourse was properly “handed down” with his religious emotion 

or sacred faith for Amida Buddha (Amida Nyorai).

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 Therefore, it is clear that in 

the medieval period, Buddhist monks tended to use hand copying as way to limit 

the number of disciples who would have access to their writing. (See figure 3.)

3.  Opening section of the oldest known 

copy of Senchaku hongan nenbutsushū 

(Selection on the Choice of the Original 

Vow of Amida Buddha) with the title 

written in the hand of Hōnenbō Genkū 

(1133–1212). Exemplar in the collection 

of the Rozan-ji Temple.

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copying texts in japan    125

Copying Diary Records in the Aristocracy

After the tenth century, when the official systems of both state and court were 

changed fundamentally, diary records (kokiroku) appeared. Although the reason 

for this has been debated among scholars, Matsuzono Hitoshi, having examined 

different scholarly interpretations, claims that diary records in the early period 

were kept in order to establish authorized manuals for court rituals as practiced 

by emperors and the high aristocracy. Matsuzono assumes that the earliest diary 

records including those of emperors’ were open in the court. The aristocracy usu-

ally checked these diary records in order to confirm precedents or quote them 

to ritual manuals.

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 However, paralleling the development of court ritual in the 

Heian period (794–1185), the aristocratic clans established their own manners or 

customs and precedents. Diary records were helpful not only for themselves but 

also for their descendants, and these texts were exchanged within the limited 

lineages. For aristocrats in this period, behaving appropriately, in accord with 

precedents, during rituals was a very significant tool for maintaining political 

status. By using their own family diaries, they could protect their political status 

and even criticize manners of other houses. Therefore, it is more likely that di-

ary records were never intended for public consumption. They were shared and 

copied by hand within a specific and exclusive lineage.

 

The effort to establish the ritual standards of a house developed into a 

kind of academic research. As a result, private libraries (bunko) were established 

in aristocratic and warrior houses. Though these libraries were open to the clan 

members and few other people, aristocrats tried to make connections with other 

lineages so that they could copy texts that they themselves did not possess. In the 

early Edo period, Emperor Gomizuno’o (1596–1680) and subsequent emperors 

worked  on  a  collection  project  under  the Tokugawa  shogunate  (1603–1868), 

which resulted in the establishment of the Kinri Bunko during the seventeenth 

century.

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 A great number of diaries, ritual commentaries, and manuals, which 

were generally not open to the public, were collected from many aristocratic clans 

in the form of handwritten copies. In contrast to medieval collection practices, 

not all the titles in Kinri Bunko were necessarily collected for a particular rea-

son. Though browsing works in the Kinri Bunko was still strongly restricted, the 

establishment of this library gave access to diary records and other texts of the 

aristocratic houses to a wider group of people. In the early modern period most 

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126    hiroki kikuchi

houses in the aristocracy also tried to establish their own libraries. As an example 

of this trend, we can examine the case of the Sanemikyō-ki.

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 (See figure 4.)

 

Sanemikyō-ki is a diary record, that was kept by Sanjō Sanemi (1264–ca. 

1325) between 1283–1310. After Sanemi’s death, his manuscripts (jihitsu-bon) were 

left to his descendants and preserved by Sanjōnishi Sanetaka (1454–1537), who 

established a very substantial private library in his house in Kyoto.

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 In the early 

eighteenth century the Sanjōnishi Bunko had been left to Sanjōnishi Kinfuku 

(1697–1745), who was still a young boy. In the same period, Maeda Tsunanori 

4.  Fragment of the original manuscript of Sanemikyō-ki, for the twenty-fourth day of the 

second month of 1292. Exemplar in the collection of the Historiographical Institute, the 

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