Molding Illustrations - Seikeizusetsu

This is one of the representative agricultural books of the Edo period. It was created by Shimazu Shigehide (1745-1833), the lord of the Satsuma domain, as part of a project to compile many books, and was actually written by two people: Sohan, a physician and scholar of Dutch studies, and Shirao Kunihashira, a scholar of Japanese classics. In addition to this work, Sohan also wrote many other books on herbal medicine.

The contents of this book are divided into sections such as agriculture, five grains, vegetables, medicinal herbs, and bamboo, and the manuscript was initially planned to be 100 volumes in total, but it was destroyed in a fire shortly after completion, and later, in 1831 (Tenpo 2), 30 volumes were reprinted. The descriptions of each crop are detailed and the illustrations are accurate, making it one of the best books of its kind at the time, and it is a pity that 70 volumes were lost. Most published versions have illustrations in black and white, but a very small number of specially bound copies printed in color have been discovered. These are presumed to have been intended as gifts for the shogun family or powerful feudal lords.

[Tsukuba Tsuneharu]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

江戸時代の代表的な農書の一つ。薩摩(さつま)藩主島津重豪(しげひで)（1745―1833）が数多くの書物編纂(へんさん)事業の一環としてつくらせたもので、医師・蘭(らん)学者の曽槃(そうはん)と国学者の白尾国柱(しらおくにはしら)の2人が実際の著述にあたった。曽槃はこの著のほかにも多くの本草(ほんぞう)書を著している。

　本書の内容は、農事、五穀、蔬菜(そさい)、薬草、樹竹などの各部門に分けられ、初め全100巻の計画で原稿がまとめられたが、完成直後に火災のため焼失し、のち1831年（天保2）になって30巻が復刻された。各作物に関する記述は詳細であり、図版も正確で、当時の類書中で卓越したものの一つであり、それだけに70巻が失われたことが惜しまれる。なお図版はたいていの刊本が黒白刷りであるが、ごく少部数だけ彩色刷りの特製本が発見されている。これは将軍家や有力大名家への贈呈用であったと推定される。

［筑波常治］

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