Chinese–ICPBS DATABASE–
The present database contains a survey of old manuscript collections of Buddhist texts extant in Japan, also including samples of digital images. We follow the current understanding of
the term ‘old Buddhist manuscript’ 古寫經 in Japanese codicology as referring to texts dating to
Nara 奈良, Heian 平安, and Kamakura 鎌倉 periods, i.e. from around the beginning of the 8th century to the first half of 14th century.
(1) This database relies upon a survey of Buddhist manuscripts copied in the Nara, Heian, and Kamakura periods as recorded in the following catalogues:
1. Nara Teishitsu Hakubutsukan Shōsō-in ka, Shōsō-in shogozō kyōkan mokuroku 正倉院聖語蔵経巻目録, 1929.
2. Unno Keisuke, ‘Kongō-ji issaikyō mokuroku (Provisional version)’ 金剛寺一切経目録(暫定版), in Ochiai Toshinori, Kongō-ji issaikyō no kisoteki kenkyū to shinshutsu butten no kenkyū 金剛寺一切経の基礎的研究と新出仏典の研究, 2004.
3. Nanatsudera issaikyō hozonkai., Owari shiryō: Nanatsudera issaikyō mokuroku 尾張史料 七寺一切経目録, 1968.
4. Ishiyamadera bunkazai sōgō chōsadan, Ishiyamadera no kenkyū: issaikyō hen 石山寺の研究 一切経篇, 1978.
5. Kyōto-fu kyōiku iinkai, Kyōto-fu komonjo chōsa hōkokusho XIII: Kōshō-ji issaikyō chōsa hōkokusho 京都府古文書調査報告書第十三集 興聖寺一切経調査報告書, 1998.
6. Yamato Kōriyama-shi kyōiku iinkai, Yamato Kōriyama-shi Saihō-ji shozō issaikyō chōsa hōkokusho 大和郡山市 西方寺所蔵一切経調査報告書, 1984.
7. Tōhoku rekishi shiryōkan, Natori shingū-ji issaikyō chōsa hōkokusho 名取新宮寺一切経調査報告書, 1980.
8. Honmon Hokkeshū Daihonzan Myōren-ji supervised, Nakao Akira ed., Kyōto Myōren-ji zō “Matsuo-sha issaikyō chōsa hōkokusho 京都妙蓮寺蔵『松尾社一切経』調査報告書, 1997.
9. Committee of Academic Frontier Project of International College for Postgraduate Buddhist Studies, Buddhist Manuscripts in the Toku’un-ji Collection 愛知県新城市徳運寺古写経調査報告書 徳運寺の古写経, 2009. (NB: Toku’un-ji 徳運寺 texts are recorded as ‘Others’ その他.)
NB: As far as the Shogozō and Ishiyama-dera Collections are concerned, we have selected and registered the manuscripts prior to the Muromachi period as recorded in the Collection catalogues 1 and 4.
The data stored here can be searched according to title, number, and name of the temple which holds the collection. Digital images of the initial folio of the manuscripts are displayed when they have been stored and registered in our archives.
Unfortunately, digital images of manuscripts from the Shōgozō 聖語蔵 (Shōsō-in 正倉院) and Ishiyama-dera 石山寺 Collections cannot be displayed at all.
Due to problems posed by data security management as well copyrights, which legally belong to the temples possessing the collections, this site can only display digital images of the first folio of the manuscripts (one cut).
The consultation of the entire text is possible only on the terminal screens of the special computers installed at the International College for Postgraduate Buddhist Studies Library. (For the usage of the Library facilities as well as our address and access, please check the main page of our website.)
One of the main objectives of the Academic Frontier Project, carried out mainly by the team based at the International College for Postgraduate Buddhist Studies between the academic years 2004 and 2009, was the reconstruction of the content of the Tripiṭaka in the Tang dynasty, i.e. before the advent of the woodblock-printed editions of the Buddhist Canon.
Our chief source in this endeavour was the Catalogue of the Zhenyuan Era 貞元録, compiled in 800 C.E.
The version of the Catalogue of the Zhenyuan Era used here is based on the old manuscript transmitted at Nanatsu-dera 七寺 as edited in Akihiko Miyabayashi 宮林昭彦 and Ochiai Toshinori 落合俊典, ‘Scrolls 29 and 30 of the Zhengyuan ru zang lu in the Nanatsudera Temple Canon’ 七寺一切経 貞元入蔵録 巻二十九・三十 (in Chūgoku, Nihon kyōten shōsho mokuroku 中国・日本経典章疏目録, Nanatsudera ko’itsu kyōten kenkyū 七寺古逸経典研究 Series Vol. VI, Tokyo: Daitō shuppansha, 1998).
The present database, which in many ways represents the fruit of the said project, basically follows the order and text number of the Catalogue of the Zhenyuan Era. This ‘Zhenyuan No’ was also adopted in A Concordance of Eight Buddhist Manuscript Canons Extant in Japan: Second Edition (Academic Frontier Project ‘Establishment of the Research Centre for the Buddhist Manuscripts copied in the Nara and Heian Periods’, International College for Postgraduate Buddhist Studies, 2007),
whose PDF can be downloaded from the following
site: http://www.icabs.ac.jp/frontia/publishing.html
When the existence of Dunhuang 敦煌 manuscript(s) of a text in our database could be ascertained, we have also added relevant information. For this, the user can click on 敦煌本情報を表示 ‘Display Dunhuang MS Data’ window. Our search has largely relied upon A Concordance to the Taishō Canon and Dunhuang Buddhist Manuscripts: Second Edition (International College for Postgraduate Buddhist Studies Library, 2005) compiled by the staff of our Library. This has been enlarged and updated in the light of the continuing efforts of its research team.
The Database contains the following data: Taishō Canon 大正藏 number, volume in the Taishō Canon, title of the text, number of scrolls 巻, author(s), and translator(s) as well as page, segment, and column in the Taishō Canon corresponding to the Dunhuang manuscript, and, finally, Dunhuang manuscript number. The abbreviations preceding the manuscript numbers follow the list of abbreviations Click here. adopted in the facsimile edition of the Dunhuang Collection.