The manuscript of Kaifūsō 懐風藻 in the Yamamoto Dokushoshitsu Collection has an ink inscription on the back of the front flyleaf that reads “Kyōan Hori sensei shinpitsu” 杏菴堀先生真筆 (true handwriting of Master Kyōan Hori).In this paper, we prove that it is not the handwriting of Hori Kyōan (1585–1643). In fact, it is a transcription of Kaifūsō from the edition published in the second year of Hōei (1705). To this was added a false postscript with, at its end, a false signature of “Shōi,” the real name of Hori Kyōan: “Kō’ei Gan Nen Okugaki Shōi” 康永元年奥書 正意 (postscript of the first year of Kō’ei [1342] Shōi).

Ishū retsuzō is a set of portraits of twelve Ainu chiefs-painted by Kakizaki Hakyō (Kakizaki Shōgen Hirotoshi, 1764–1826), a painter and poet who was also a house elder of the Matsumae domain. It was created in the aftermath of an Ainu uprising in the eastern Ezo districts of Kunashiri and Menashi in the fifth month of Kansei 1 (1789). After the completion of the set, which took a whole year, it was first taken to Kyoto, where it was viewed by Confucian scholars, court nobles, and finally Emperor Kōkaku.In those days, the Tokugawa shogunate was increasingly vigilant against foreign ships such as Russia approaching the Ezo districts.The Ishū retsuzō paintings represent the Ainu chiefs as loyal vassals (kōshinzu) in the same manner as the Kenjō no sōji, a set of wall panels for the Shishinden Hall in the imperial palace in Kyoto. Based on that style, trade goods and products of Ezo are elaborately depicted in a manner resembling natural history illustrations. This choice of mode, following the Kenjō no sōji, suggests that the intention was to convey loyalty to the emperor. Moreover, the preface and the appendices by Matsumae Hironaga also reiterate the Matsumae domain’s position as “the keystone of defense in the north.”Utilizing these “Ezo” paintings by the rising artist Hakyō, the main purpose of this project must have been to introduce the Matsumae’s cultural maturity to the emperor, whom the domain lord admired, as well as to court nobles and the most famous Confucian scholars of the day in Kyoto, thus further strengthening ties between Kyoto, with the imperial court, and the Matsumae domain.

The Kōdōkan of Minagawa Ki’en has been popularly known as a Confucian school since the centenary commemorative book Kōju Minagawa Ki’en was published by the Ki’en Kai in 1908. In chapter 7, the journalist Nishimura Tenshū discussed two petition letters for a grant of public land addressed to the Kyoto government by Ki’en in order to establish a Confucian school, and identified the date “October, year of the Pig” as the third year of Kyōwa, namely 1803. But Liuqi (1999) refuted Nishimura’s dating on the basis of correspondence between Ki’en and Kawada Kōsei, a retainer of Tottori clan, rather identifying the fourth year of Meiwa (1767) for Ki’en’s petition.Among the documents related to Minagawa Ki’en donated by Mr. Minagawa Bunkô to the Yuuhisai Koudoukan, we found a reliable fair copy of the petition letter by Ki’en addressed to “Nishi Bugyōsho” (Western office of Kyoto government), dated “Meiwa Yonen Teigai Jūgatsu Jusha Minagawa Bunzō,” namely October, the fourth year of Teigai, Meiwa, Confucian Minagawa Bunzō. Analysis of the three texts of the petition letters shows that Ki’en planned a semi-public and semi-private Confucian schoolfor poor elite students with a capable, non-hereditary schoolmaster, and insisted on the necessity of grant land for fear that the school would be privatized by the schoolmaster’s family in the case of rented land.In addition to the aforementioned petition letters dated 1767, we present here the text of three letters by Ki’en to Matsura Seizan, lord of Hirado clan, disciple and patron of Ki’en. In the first letter, which is dated the 11th day of the 6th month of the 3rd year of Bunka (1806), Ki’en reported on the frame-raising ceremony of an auditorium on the the 26th day of the 5th month of the same year, saying that he had purchased by himself a western open space next to his house, building it using donations from his disciples. He named it Kōdōkan as a shrine of Confucius and lecture place of Ceremony and Music. This letter is a supplication for financial aid to maintain Kōdōkan. He also mentioned his plan to construct a dormitory adjacent to Kōdōkan for elite students. But nothing is known about this educational establishment.As for the two other letters to Matsura Seizan, both dated the 16th day of the 2nd month of the 4th year of Bunka (1807), they are the same letter of thanks regarding Seizan’s financial aid to Kōdōkan, with small differences in the extremely polite wording: one uses the present title Lord of Hirado; the other uses the retired title of Seizan in the address, since Seizan had retired on the 18th day of the 11th month of the 3rd year of Bunka.

The Minagawa Collection at Kyoto University Library holds writings and books by Confucian and philologist Minagawa Ki’en (1735~1807). The collection consists of 69 titles with 400 volumes, which were deposited by the Minagawa head family to the Imperial Kyoto University Library in 1913, and purchased by Kyoto University Library in 1949.More recently, on 25 May 2022, Mr. Minagawa Bunkō made a donation of 38 manuscripts and 8 books related to Minagawa Ki’en to the Yuuhisai Koudoukan Public Interest Incorporated Foundation. These are the remains of the Minagawa branch family’s collection, most of which was destroyed in a fire at their house in Kameoka city in 1943.In this paper, we present an inventory of Mr. Minagawa Bunkō’s donation, as a preliminary investigation into these works. Further studies on each document, comparing them with related other manuscripts and books by Minagawa Ki’en, are needed. Some distinctive features of the new col-lection, however, should be noted at this early stage. These are as follows.Yūhisai Zōsho Mokuroku (MS 4), a catalogue of Ki’en’s Library made in 1819, is a unique and useful document for the study of Ki’en’s knowledge sources. The 6 volumes entitled Yūhisai Shū Kan (MS 8, MS13, MS 14, MS 15, MS 16, MS 17), which collect Ki’en’s poems and prose, contain the original manuscripts of works published as Ki’en Shishū in 1792, Ki’en Bunshū Shohen in 1799 and the Ki’en Bunshū wood movable-type edition in 1816.Sei On Genpon Ron 音声元本論 (MS 10), an essay on the origin of voice and sound, and the Jūbo Hakki 十母発揮 (MS 12), an explication of 10 stems, are both new documents and will contribute to the study of Ki’en’s phonetics. A sheet of Peterufuruka Jowō (MS 27), a colored portrait of Catherine II, Empress of Russia, apparently derived from Daikokuya Kōdayū’s souvenirs of Russia, was dedicated to Minagawa Ki’en by an unknown Rōrensai.An old book of Kaigen Tenpō Iji 開元天宝遺事 (B 7), namely Kaiyan Tianbao Yishi by Wang Renyu 王仁裕, has proven to be a rare Japanese copy made by old wood movable-type printing from the Tenna period (1615~1624).In short, this inventory is a first step in our investigations into the newly donated Minagawa Ki’en’s documents. Further studies will commence shortly.

The genre of hyōbanki originally developed as laudatory reviews of Kabuki actors during the 18th century in Japan. Since the mid-18th century, it was extended to a wider cultural circle of scholars, physicians, literary artists and notorieties, with more elements of criticism. Heian Gaka Hyōbanki, a review of painters in Kyoto, dated 1856, is known as a rare application of hyōbanki to the painters in the Higashiyama Spring-Autumn Exhibition, which was begun by Minagawa Ki’en in 1792.Here we present the text of Kyoto Bunjin Hyōbanki, a newly discovered hyōbanki on the painters in Kyoto, dated the winter of 1853, which was handwritten by Yamamoto Yôshitsu. The title “Kyoto Bunjin Hyōbanki” was given to the manuscript by Yamamoto Mataichi, son of Yōshitsu around 1907. Contrary to Heian Gaka Hyōbanki, which maintains a more or less laudatory style, the 108 painters in this anonymous satire are bitterly attacked in comic references to the 108 types of love they are supposed to enjoy mainly in the pleasure quarters (yūri).Comparing it with the anonymous ichimai zuri (one sheet print) described by Tajihi Ikuo (1967), all the citations from this now untraceable print can be traced back to the text of Kyoto Bunjin Hyōbanki. Thus, Yōshitsu proves not to have beeen the author but to have transcribed it, presumably from its augmented handwritten version, in order to enrich the library of Yamamoto Dokushoshitsu school when he succeeded his father, the Confucian naturalist Yamamoto Bōyō.Among the 108 painters attacked by the anonymous author, the two top painters of the period, Oda Kaisen and Nukina Kai’oku, are respectively positioned at the beginning and at the end of the text, the conventional position in traditional hyōbanki. The two were extreme rivals and had no contact in their social life. However, in this case, Oda is the mocked more forcefully, and at the greatest length. Bōyō condemned illiterate and libertine painters, but approached Nukina and Oda, both learned painters, with a certain detachment, whereas Yōshitsu maintained an intensive intercourse with both of them, but especially with Oda, one of the painters who most frequently participated in the Bussankai annual meeting of amateur naturalists at Dokushoshitsu school.Further investigation is needed to elucidate the true author of this satire in hyōbanki style, the Kyoto Bunjin Hyōbanki, in search of the ichimai zuri lost for 55 years.