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

150    hiroki kikuchi

Notes

  1.  The Historigraphical Institute has experienced many organizational changes and changes 

to its name since the early Meiji period (1868–1912). In this essay I will uniformly refer 

to this organization as the “Historiographical Institute” as the translation for the name in 

Japanese name “Shiryō hensanjo.”

  2.  In Japanese scholarship, diaries kept by aristocrats are generally called kokiroku, which will 

be translated “diary record” in this essay.

  3.  In 1991 the Historiographical Institute began publishing the text of Sanemikyō-ki by Sanjō 

Sanemi (1264–ca. 1325) as number 20 of the series Dai-Nihon kokiroku (Old Diaries of 

Japan) (Tokyo: Iwanami shoten, 1952–).

  4.  This is the famous Hyakumantō darani (Dhāranī in One Million Stupas). In memory of 

the people who died in the civil war along with Emi no Oshikatsu (706–764), Empress 

Shōtoku dedicated these one million stupas containing printed dhāranī to the ten great 

temples. See Hyakumantō darani (Dhāranī in One Million Stupas) in Hōryūji Shōwa 

shizaichō henshū i’inkai, ed., Hōryūji no shihō (Treasures of the Hōryū Temple), vol. 5 

(Tokyo: Shōgakukan, 1991).

  5.  In the eighth century, in addition to the imperially sponsored sutra-copying projects, 

imperial princes and the great temples also undertook such copying projects, which were 

carried out, however, for relatively personal purposes or limited use.

  6.  See Sakaehara Towao, ed., Nara jidai no shakyō to dairi (Sutra-Copying and Imperial Palace 

in the Nara Period) (Tokyo: Hanawa shobō, 2000). See also Yamashita Yumi, “Nihon 

kodai-kokka ni okeru issaikyō to taigai ishiki” (Buddhist Canon and the International 

Consciousness in the Ancient State of Japan), Rekishi Hyōron 586 (1999), pp. 31–44.

  7.  For more on Heike nōkyō, see Komatsu Shigemi, Heike nōkyō no kenkyū (Research on 

Sutra Dedicated by the Taira Clan) (Tokyo: Kōdansha, 1976).

  8.  They are called shōsoku-gyō (sutra of letters [of a deceased person]). For example, in 1304 

when Emperor Fushimi (1265–1317) copied the Lotus Sutra in memory of his father, 

Emperor Gofukakusa (1243–1304), he copied it onto the back of 170 letters written by 

Emperor Gofukakusa. See Bunkachō ed., Kokuhō jūyō bunkazai taizen (Major Collection 

of National Treasures and Important Cultural Properties), vol. 7 (Tokyo: Mainichi shin-

bunsha, 1997), pp. 650–651.

  9.  See Hayami Tasuku, Genshin (Tokyo: Yoshikawa kōbunkan, 1988), p. 118.

 10.  Ōhashi Shunnō, “Kujō Kanezane no negai wo irete” (Accepting the Wish of Kujō Kane-

zane), Honen (Tokyo: Kōdansha, 1998), chap. 7.

 11.  Ibid., pp. 174–179.

 12.  See Senchaku hongan nenbutsushū, Rozanji version. This, the oldest extant version of this 

work, is preserved in the Rozanji Temple in Kyoto. For a published edition of this Ro-

zanji version, see Senchaku hongan nenbutsushū, Ishi’i Kyōdō, ed., Shōwa-shinshū Hōnen 

shōnin zenshū (New Shōwa Period Edition of the Complete Collected Works of Sage 

Hōnen) (Tokyo: Jōdoshūmusho, 1955).

     

See also Tōdō Yūhan, comp., Senchakushū taikan (General Survey of Senchakushū) (To-

kyo: Sankibō busshorin, 1975); and Shinran (1173–1263), “Keshindo-kan kōjo” (Postface 

to the Volume of the Land of Manifested Buddha) of Kyōgyōshinshō (Selection of Verifi-

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copying texts in japan    151

cation of [Pure Land] Through Teachings and Practices), in Teihon Shinran shōnin zenshū 

(Definitive Edition of the Complete Works of the Sage Shinran), ed. Shinran shōnin 

zenshū kankōkai, vol. 1 (Kyoto: Hōzōkan, 1970).

 13.  Matsuzono Hitoshi, “Ōchō-nikki hassei ni kansuru ichishiron” (A Tentative Essay on the 

Birth of Dynastic Diary Records), in his Ōchō-nikki ron (Theory of Dynastic Diary Re-

cords) (Tokyo: Hōsei daigaku shuppankyoku, 2006).

 14.  See Tajima Isao, “Kinsei kugebunko no hensen to zōshomokuroku” (Changes in the 

Aristocratic Libraries and Their Catalogues in the Early Modern Period), in Kinri kuge-

bunko kenkyū (Research on the Imperial and Aristocratic Libraries), ed. Tajima Isao, vol. 1 

(Kyoto: shibunkaku shuppan, 2003), pp. 15–49.

 15.  For more on the copying of Sanemikyō-ki, see Kikuchi Hiroki, “’Sanemikyō-ki’ shahon 

no keisei to kugebunko” (The Development of Copies of Sanemikyō-ki and Aristocratic 

Libraries), Kinri kuge bunkokenykū, ed. Tajima Isao, pp. 221–245.

 16.  See Kikuchi Hiroki, “’Sanemikyō-ki’ no denrai kōsei ni kansuru ichikōsatsu” (A Consid-

ertion on the Transmission and the Construction of Sanemikyō-ki), Tōkyō daigaku Shiryō 

hensanjo kenkyū kiyō, vol. 10 (Tokyo: Tōkyō daigaku shiryō hensanjo, 2000), pp. 19–38.

     

On Sanjōnishi Sanetaka’s biography, see Haga Kōshirō, Sanjōnishi Sanetaka (Tokyo: 

Yoshikawa kōbunkan, 1959). For additional research on Sanjōnishi Sanetaka, see Mi-

yakawa Yōko, Sanjōnishi Sanetaka to kotengaku (Sanjōnishi Sanetaka and Classical Studies) 

(Tokyo: Kazama shobō, 1995).

 17.  The Takatsukasa Bunko is also one of the most remarkable private libraries in the early 

modern period. See Nakamura Kazunori, “Takatsukasa-ke bunko no shoshiteki kenkyū” 

(A Philological Study of Takatsukasa Library), Shoryōbu kiyō (Bulletin of the Depart-

ment of Imperial Books and Mausoleum of the Imperial Household Agency), 44 (Tokyo: 

Kunaichō shoryōbu, 1992), pp. 33–51.

 18.  Basically the Hino and the Yanagiwara belonged to the same clan and had a strong con-

nection with each other. For example, Sukenaru’s uncle, Yanagiwara Motomitsu (1746–

1800) adopted Sukenaru’s sister. In addition, Motomitsu’s son, i.e. Sukenaru’s cousin, 

Yanagiwara Naomitsu (1772–1812), let his son marry Ōgimachi-Sanjō Kin’nori’s daugh-

ter.

 19.  Though quite a few diary records were published in Hanawa Hoki’ichi (1746–1821), 

comp., Gunsho ruijū (Collection of Mass Volumes), 29 vols., and in Ōta Tōshirō, comp., 

Zoku gunsho ruijū (Successive Collection of Mass Volumes), 37 vols. (Tokyo: Zoku gunsho 

ruijū kanseikai, 1923–1933), they are all extracts related to particular events. For example, 

“Shōan san’nen daijōe ki” (Record of the Enthronement Ceremony in 1301), a section 

of Sanemikyō-ki, is contained in Gunsho ruijū, vol. 17; and Saneimikyō chūnagon haiga ki 

(Record of Sanemi’s Reception of Appointment as Middle Counselor), another section 

of Sanemikyō-ki, is contained in Zoku Gunsho ruijū, vol. 11.

     

When the Gunsho ruijū was published for the first time in the Edo period through 

woodblock printing, it was edited into 530 volumes and the Zoku gunsho ruijū into 993 

volumes. In the modern period in the production of the moveable-type edition, the vol-

umes were reorganized and compiled into 29 volumes and 37 volumes, respectively. My 

reference here is to the modern, moveable-type edition.

 20.  Matsuzawa Yoshiyuki claims that the service for the nobility, such as the Konoe family 

and other regent (sekke) families by their subordinates (kerai), was significant in the society 

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