同風印社『印印』総目録化報告

抄録

Sonoda Kojō 園田湖城 (1886-1968) was a leading seal-engraver of modern Japan who endeavoured to collect old Chinese seals and produce albums of impressions of these seals and, with a highly refined style of engraving underpinned by these endeavours, left a large mark on the world of seal-engraving during the Taishō and Shōwa eras. Worthy of special note among his achievements is the journal In'in 印印, which served as the organ of the society Dōfū Insha 同風印社, presided over by Sonoda, and was published from September 1926 to November 1951.
  Throughout all eighty-two issues of In'in actual impressions of seals were used, and each issue began with impressions of old seals and seal engravings by earlier engravers and also included collotype prints of paintings and calligraphic works by Chinese and Japanese masters and reproductions of rubbings of stone and metal inscriptions. It made an enormous contribution to the world of seal engraving. It also had the elements of a collection of impressions of seals engraved by society members, and the postscript ("Yoteki" 餘滴) at the end of each issue could be said to provide first-rate material on the state of the contemporary world of calligraphy and seal engraving.
  But only a small number of copies of In'in were printed, and there exist very few complete sets. Consequently, although several studies have appeared in the past, it could be said that we do not yet have a full picture of this publication. In 2012 I wrote the explanatory comments for a catalogue of rare albums of seal impressions, both Japanese and Chinese, held by Naritasan Calligraphy Museum, including a complete set of In'in (Naritasan Shodō Bijutsukan zō inpu kaidai 成田山書道美術館蔵印譜解題), and in the course of preparing this catalogue I realized once again the importance of this publication and accordingly decided to take it up on this occasion.
  In this article, I present an outline of In'in and, with a view to summarizing the contents of all the volumes that were published, I also provide, in the order in which they appear, a list of engravers whose seals were reproduced and institutions holding the classical works reproduced in the pages of In'in. I also bring together the content of the postscripts in the form of a chronological record of the Dōfū Insha that gives a sense of the situation at the time. I shall be delighted if this proves of some use to other researchers.