Title: Daihannyaharamita-kyo (The Great Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra Volume 145), Circa 1222-1227. A Rare Karoku-Ban edition of the Great Perfection of Wisdom Sutra
Author: Translation of Xuánzàng
Condition: Very Good
An extremely rare Early Kamakura Period, early 13th century woodblock printed edition of the Daihannyaharamita-kyo or Da bore Boluomi Duo Yan Biao Di, also known as the Great Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras or Mahaprajnaparamita, being the 151st and 196th fascicles of the original 600, taken from the first collection of Prajñāpāramitā verses. This is part of the Karoku-ban edition printed from 1222-27, utilizing the Xuánzàng Prajñāpāramitā Library translation.
Translated as the Great Perfection of Wisdom, it is derived from the collection of Chinese scholar and translator Xuánzàng, who possessed a massive Sanskrit collection of Prajñāpāramitā sutras, which he later returned to China with, and later condensed into 600 scrolls, containing 5 million Chinese characters.
The collection comprises of 16 Prajñāpāramitā texts, among which includes the Diamond sutra, being scroll number 577.
Each sutra has been printed on strong mulberry paper and printed using a very fine ink in a bushy font, which would be expected for most Kasuga and Karoko-ban editions of the Kamkura and Muromachi Period.
The sutra is printed n a single column format, with up to 17 characters per column.
One printed handscroll of sutras, 27.7 cm x 896 cm
This handscroll is in good shape, with some rubbing and wear to the outer covers. There are worm tracks throughout, mostly to the upper and lower margins, with a couple of smaller worm tracks to the text, that become gradually larger and worse to the last 200 cm or so.