Narachō tenseki shosai bussho kaisetsu sakuin 奈良朝典籍所載仏書解説索引
Shōsōin monjo jikō sakuin 正倉院文書事項索引
Shōsōin monjo sakuin 正倉院文書索引
Nihon kodai jinmei jiten 日本古代人名辭典
Daizōkyō zenkaisetsu daijiten 大蔵経全解說⼤事典
Database of Kuzushi-ji 電子くずし字字典データベース
Narachō tenseki shosai bussho kaisetsu sakuin 奈良朝典籍所載仏書解説索引, 1 vol. Kimoto Yoshinobu 木本好信, ed. Tokyo: Kokusho Kankōkai 国書刊行会, 1989.
This single-volume work is an index of titles for Buddhist sutras, monastic codes, treatises, and commentaries referenced in Nara sources including the twenty-five volume collection Dai Nihon komonjo 大日本古文書, Nara ibun 寧楽遺文, and the official chronicles known as the Shoku Nihongi 続日本記. The titles are listed according to the now standard fifty-syllable system and are recorded – either the full title or an abbreviation – as found in Dai Nihon komonjo. Each entry lists all appearances of the sutra title. Items from Dai Nihon komonjo list the volume number in a box followed by the page number written in Chinese characters. The character 寧 is used to denote entries found in Nara ibun followed by page numbers and jō 上, chū 中, ge 下 for the volume number. Entries found in the Shoku Nihongi are denoted by the character 続 followed by the reign date of the record. An encircled “大” signifies where the entry is to be found in the Taishō shinshū daizōkyō 大正新脩大藏經, and “解” marks the volume and page number for the entry in the Bussho kaisetsu daijiten 仏書解説大辞典. The editor(s) also provide occasional notes throughout the volume, often to delineate between different translations or versions of texts listed under the same title.
This work is a key source for finding references to Buddhist texts in Shōsōin documents. It is particularly useful for research on kobetsu shakyō jigyō 個別写経事業 and for looking up whether a given text was extant in the Nara period. It is also useful for comparing titles of Buddhist texts found in the Shōsōin Archive with other Nara-period documents. (Matt McMullen)
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Shōsōin monjo jikō sakuin 正倉院文書事項索引, 1 vol. Sekine Shinryū 関根真隆, ed. Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kōbunkan 吉川弘文館, 2001.
This book is an index of “things” that appear in Dai Nihon komonjo, a chronological compilation of major Nara-period documents including Shōsōin documents. The majority of the terms included in this book come from the Shōsōin documents, which date from 702 (Taihō 2) through 780 (Hōki 11). The book is divided into 118 groups of objects under twenty large categories, ranging from textiles/clothing, food, architecture, weapons, stationery, furniture, Buddhist images/implements, games/musical instruments, tools, conveyances, medicine, artistic techniques, currency, land, animals/plants, to events/ceremonies. Each term heading is followed by the volume and page numbers of the Dai Nihon komonjo where the word appears. Whenever it is relevant, an extended explanation and a cross-reference to comparable examples in Shōsōin hōmotsu (10 vols, Mainichi Shinbun, 1994-1997) are provided at the end of a category.
As Sekine states in the introduction, the terms included in this index are all words we know to have existed in the Nara period. Unlike a typical dictionary, the terms are clustered together by types, rather than being listed according to pronunciations or stroke numbers. This allows a user to easily locate the occurrences of not only the object of one’s interest, but also of its alternate names and of other related objects. (Akiko Walley)
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Shōsōin monjo sakuin: Kanshi, kanshoku, chimei, jisha hen 正倉院文書索引 : 官司・官職・地名・寺社編, 1 vol. Naoki Kōjirō 直木孝次郎, ed. Tokyo: Heibonsha 平凡社, 1981.
Naoki Kōjirō’s volume contains an index of officials, government offices, place names, and temples and shrines that appear in the 25 volumes of the Dai Nihon komonjo 大日本古文書 series that contain Shōsōin documents. It is divided into three sections according to the categories identified in the title (officials/government offices, place names, and temples and shrines), and each section has entries organized in “a, i, u, e, o” order. Entries have two types of numbers: ones enclosed in boxes indicate the Dai Nihon komonjo volume number, and the regular number that follows is the page number where the term can be found. Naoki places asterisks after numbers for entries that he determines are clearly mistaken in the series, or to mark editorial decisions about characters in the original documents that have become illegible due to damage over time (Chris Mayo)
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Nihon kodai jinmei jiten 日本古代人名辭典. 7 Volumes. Takeuchi Rizō 竹内理三, Yamada Hideo 山田英雄, and Hirano Kunio 平野邦雄, eds. Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kōbunkan 吉川弘文館, 1958-1977.
The seven volumes of this dictionary began as an attempt to turn biographical index cards that Takeuchi Rizō had created for his personal use into an aid for other scholars conducting research on ancient Japan. The editors drew from over 100 sources with coverage up to the late eighth century, and for each of the figures mentioned, they cite the source texts where they can be found. In total, there are about 22,000 people included, and the content is arranged in order according to the first kanji of a name. Entries for individuals typically list details such as court ranks, alternate orthography for the name, and events in the person’s life.
The first pages of each volume provide the sources used and has a brief explanation of how entries are arranged. Common abbreviations of sources include the volume number and page number for Dai Nihon komonjo 大日本古文書 and 寧 for Nara ibun 寧楽遺文. See the final volume (pp. 1925-1981) for additional entries not included in the first six volumes. Beginning in the back of Volume Seven there is also a useful index arranged according to the on and kun readings of the first character used in surnames (pp. 1-33). (Christopher Mayo)
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Daizōkyō zenkaisetsu daijiten 大蔵経全解說⼤事典, 1 vol. Kamata Shigeo 鎌⽥田茂雄, et al., eds. Tokyo: Yūzankaku Shuppan 雄山閣出版, 1998).
This ambitious reference work includes summaries of all 2920 texts of the Taishō canon, the most commonly used modern print edition of the Chinese Buddhist canon. Entries contain information on the author (or attributed author) of the text, its possible date of composition or translation, and a brief summary of its contents. Some entries are considerably longer than others. In some cases the author of the entry merely lists the titles of chapters and the number of scrolls, but occasionally an entry will provide secondary sources on this work or its author in addition to an explanation of the main themes found in a given text. The volume also includes five appendices: 1) a biographical dictionary of authors and translators, 2) an index of references to canonical texts found in Japanese literary works, 3) a list of the images included in the original twelve fascicles of the Taishō canon, 4) images related to canonical texts listed by theme (e.g., the life of Śākyamuni), and 5) an index of the titles of texts listed according to the fifty-syllable system. The editors also provide a brief, one-page overview of Buddhist canons in East Asia.
In many ways, this reference provides the same information that can be found in the more extensive Bussho kaisetsu daijiten. Many entries, especially those concerning texts by Japanese authors, are more or less the same as the older reference work, but some entries have been updated to include recent secondary scholarship. However, the gem of this publication is the appendices, which bring together references to canonical texts in art and literary works that would otherwise take hours to find using separate dictionaries. For Shōsōin scholars, it is invaluable as a single volume reference work written in easy to understand language. It is less technical than some of the more specialized multi-volume sources used by Buddhologists (such as the aforementioned Bussho kaisetsu daijiten) and therefore can be easily used by scholars working in a range of academic disciplines. (Matthew McMullen)
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Database of Kuzushi-ji 電子くずし字字典データベース.
The Tokyo Historiographical Institute has recently begun to include examples from Shōsōin documents in its kuzushi-ji database. This database can be searched by character, reading or radical. Upon searching, images of all of the examples in the database appear. Clicking on an individual image provides a larger image as well as information about the date, title, and location of the original source. This is an excellent resource for those interested in the history of calligraphy as well as for providing assistance in deciphering hard to read or obscure character forms in Shōsōin documents. At present, the quantity of entries from the Shōsōin is rather limited, but it promises to be a resource that improves over time. There are also plans to link it with database on mokkan 木簡 in the future, so it will be possible to compare hand-written characters from diverse Nara period sources. (Bryan Lowe)
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