Zorbas, ElaineMareMagnum
Daihokoengaku ryakusho chugyo 大方廣圓覺略ç–注經; Chinese title: Da fang guang yuan jue lüe su zhu jing; Commentary on the Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment The Yuanjuejing
réf. 6775Eight columns per page 17 characters per column. Three sizes of type. 42; 41; 38; 40 folding leaves. Four vols. Large 8vo 280 x 195 mm. orig. dark wrappers dyed with persimmon juice shibubiki new stitching. Enryakuji Temple Mount Hiei: mid-Kan’ei ca. 1626-30. An unrecorded moveable type edition of the commentary and subcommentary of Zongmi 780-841 on the Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment. This is a rare example of an Eizan-ban a book printed with moveable type at the temples on Mount Hiei outside of Kyoto where Enryakuji Temple one of the most important monasteries of Japan and the headquarters of the Tendai sect of Japanese Buddhism is located. Printing began there in the 13th century. “There were few of these printed books in the medieval period perhaps due to the dominance of Kyoto itself as a printing centre…Eizan printing came into its own on a large scale only from the end of the sixteenth century with the introduction of movable-type printing. Typographic printing flourished at various temples on Hieizan from the Keicho to Kan’ei periods 1596-1644 and with the publication of Chinese works as well as Tendai scriptures publication and distribution at Hieizan began to develop into the beginnings of a commercial enterprise.”–K.B. Gardner “Centres of Printing in Medieval Japan: Late Heian to Early Edo Period” reprinted in Brokaw & Kornicki eds. The History of the Book in East Asia 2013 p. 450. The writings of Dushun 557-640 Zhiyan 602-68 Fazang 643-712 and Zongmi are considered by many as the “crowning glory of Chinese thought… marking the maturation of a process by which the Chinese made Buddhism their own.”–Bowring The Religious Traditions of Japan 500-1600 p. 104. Zongmi was a Tang dynasty Buddhist scholar monk; he was the fifth patriarch of the Huayan school as well as a patriarch of the Heze lineage of Southern Chan. The Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment was the scripture that led Zongmi to enlightenment in 808; he resolved to prepare a commentary and subcommentary on the text which he accomplished fifteen years later. As stated above this moveable type edition is unrecorded. Kawase in his bibliography of Japanese moveable type editions records another printing of this text dated 1626 but with ten columns per page and 20 characters per column Vol. I p. 304. Sorimachi in his amazing 40th anniversary catalogue of moveable type books issued in 1972 describes what appears to be yet another moveable type printing of this text with the same number of columns and characters as the Kawase example but using three different sizes of type they might be the same printing. It is described as four parts in two volumes in their original bindings printed in mid-Kan’ei ca. 1630 and with a slightly different title. The NIJL records no moveable type editions and only the woodblock-printed Seihan edition of 1644. On the printed title-labels of the second and fourth volume covers the title is given as Engaku ryakusho chu. The labels on Vols. I and III are no longer present. As mentioned above the wrappers have been dyed with persimmon juice which serves a dual purpose: to strengthen the paper and act as an insect repellent. Nevertheless the wrappers are somewhat wormed. Each volume has some worming but this set is in rather fresh and appealing condition. unknown
