Japanese Works : Dōjo senyō onna terako chōhōki

Japanese Works

<p style='text-align: justify;'><i>Dōjo senyō onna terako chōhōki</i> is a nineteenth century woodblock-printed textbook with a title that proclaims it to be a compendium for female students (<i>onna terako chōhōki</i> 女寺子調法記) and 'just for girls' (<i>dōjo senyō</i> 童女専用). It is a collection of earlier textbooks. A detailed list of contents appears <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(2);return false;'>inside the front cover</a>. The didactic works include <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(6);return false;'>Onna jitsugo kyō</a>, <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(39);return false;'>Onna Imagawa</a>, <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(52);return false;'>Onna tenarai kyōkun jō</a> and <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(58);return false;'>Onna shōbai ōrai</a>. In the <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(2);return false;'>illustration that faces the titles</a>, the anonymous artist depicts an adult woman facing two girls and pointing to an open book.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>The <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='http://base1.nijl.ac.jp/~tkoten/'>Union Catalogue of Early Japanese Books</a> lists only eighteen extant copies of this title. However, internal evidence suggests that this title was relatively widely read. The <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(71);return false;'>colophon</a> gives the original date of publication as Bunka 3 [1806] and identifies this edition as having been recarved in Tenpō 13 [1842]. Below this information, an early owner added her handwritten ex libris note, 'Kuroda zōsho 黒田蔵書' (from the Kuroda library). The Cambridge copy of the second edition reproduced here may be compared to a digital <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='http://tinyurl.com/z6rszzw'>copy of the first edition</a> at the National Institute of Japanese Literature. The fact that the book was recarved suggests that the original blocks may have been used hundreds or thousands of times such that entirely new blocks were needed. Alternatively, the publishers may have wished to give potential purchasers that impression of popular success; the recarved edition includes some new illustrations but largely follows the first edition.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>The title was also spread widely geographically. The colophon lists publishers in four different cities: Yamashiroya Sahei 山城屋佐兵衛 (Edo 江戸), Yamashiroya Sahei 山城屋佐兵衛 (Kyoto 京都), Akitaya Taemon 秋田屋太右衛門 (Osaka 大阪), and Eirakuya Tōshirō 永楽屋東四郎 (Bishu 尾州).</p>