{"id":1162,"date":"2012-09-24T10:17:26","date_gmt":"2012-09-24T15:17:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nonsolusblog.wordpress.com\/?p=1162"},"modified":"2012-09-24T10:17:26","modified_gmt":"2012-09-24T15:17:26","slug":"first-illustrated-japanese-book-added-as-13-millionth-volume","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/2012\/09\/24\/first-illustrated-japanese-book-added-as-13-millionth-volume\/","title":{"rendered":"First Illustrated Japanese Book Added as 13-Millionth Volume"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Ise monogatari<\/em> \u4f0a\u52e2\u7269\u8a9e (Tales of Ise<\/em>). Kyoto-fu (Saga):\u00a0Suminokura Soan, with Nakanoin Michikatsu and Hon’ami\u00a0K\u014detsu, 1608.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has added its 13-millionth book, maintaining our status as the largest public university library in America.\u00a0 The 13-millionth volume is the Ise Monogatari<\/em> of 1608, the first illustrated Japanese printed book<\/strong>.\u00a0 It is also the first printed edition of the popular Ise Monogatari<\/em> (or Tales of Ise).\u00a0 Published by Suminokura Soan \u89d2\u5009\u7d20\u5eb5 (1571-1632), \u00a0a wealthy entrepreneur, scholar, litterateur and art connoisseur, it is also one of the earliest Japanese books printed with moveable type. <\/del><\/p>\n

Soan\u2019s printing establishment, which he set up at Saga \u5d6f\u5ce8 village near Kyoto, produced the much sought after \u201cSaga-bon\u201d imprints, of which this is the most famous.<\/p>\n

The Tales of Ise <\/em>is an anonymous compilation of 209 poems and 125 episodes from a poet\u2019s life, arranged in rough chronological order as a biography of the unnamed protagonist (known in the text only as \u2018a man\u2019).\u00a0 It probably originated the 10th<\/sup> century but gained its present form in the 12th<\/sup> century, in a version edited by the great poet Fujiwara Teika \u85e4\u539f\u5b9a\u5bb6 (1162-1241).\u00a0 Enormously popular, the Tales of Ise<\/em> recounts the amorous exploits of an unnamed lover\/poet, often identified with Ariwara no Narihira (825-80), one of the six \u201csages\u201d of Japanese poetry.\u00a0 The text was often illustrated in manuscript form and has long been considered a kind of ars amatoria<\/em> and an essential text for students of Japanese culture. Theromantic adventures are also popular subject matter for painting, so it is not surprising that the first illustrated Japanese book would be the Tales of Ise<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The first printed edition\u2014our 13 millionth book\u2014was published by Suminokura Soan in co-operation with the famous painter, calligrapher and polymath, Hon’ami K\u014detsu\u00a0\u672c\u963f\u5f25\u5149\u60a6 (1558-1637). The illustrator of the book is unknown, but some have attributed the woodcuts to K\u014detsu.\u00a0 A third member of the publishing team, Nakanoin Michikatsu \u4e2d\u9662\u901a\u52dd, (1558-1610), was a nobleman, literary scholar, and editor.\u00a0 Their Saga-bon editions were prized for their high quality and artistic merit.\u00a0 They were printed with movable wooden type, a technique newly imported from Korea. The elegant type and delicate woodcuts of the Saga-bon Tales of Ise<\/em> appear on five different hand-made colored papers.<\/p>\n

This rare first edition is distinguished by Nakanoin Michikatsu’s brush drawn kakihan<\/em> or cipher, one of only four copies with his handwritten signature, probably indicating that this copy was presented as a gift.<\/p>\n

The book was reprinted eight times by 1610.\u00a0 Its illustrations became the model for the iconography of this text and for the general style of Japanese book illustration for the next two centuries. \u00a0The University of Illinois houses an excellent collection of 17th- <\/sup>\u00a0to 19th<\/sup>-century illustrated Japanese books in its Yamagiwa Collection, including a 15th<\/sup>-century manuscript copy of the Tales of Ise <\/em>and three 17th<\/sup>– and early 18th<\/sup> -century print editions. This new acquisition will be a boon to scholars and students of Japanese literature and culture at our university, and a welcome addition for anyone who loves beautiful books.<\/p>\n

We are grateful to the Simpson family for the generous support which made this important acquisition possible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ise monogatari \u4f0a\u52e2\u7269\u8a9e (Tales of Ise). Kyoto-fu (Saga):\u00a0Suminokura Soan, with Nakanoin Michikatsu and Hon’ami\u00a0K\u014detsu, 1608. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has added its 13-millionth book, maintaining our status as the largest public university library in America.\u00a0 The 13-millionth volume is the Ise Monogatari of 1608, the first illustrated Japanese printed book.\u00a0 It is also […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":115,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[152,158,172,234,250,286],"class_list":["post-1162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-ise-monogatari","tag-japanese-literature","tag-koetsu","tag-saga-bon","tag-tales-of-ise","tag-yamagiwa"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/115"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1162\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}