Title: Ezo Shi ("Ezo Gazeteer"), 1783. An Extremely Early Manuscript Copy containing Hakuseki’s Publication about the Ainu People and Ezochi, with An Additionally Bound in Handscroll of Text and 25 Pages of Original Hand Colored Illustrations of the Ainu People. A Composite Manuscript
Author: Arai Hakuseki; Unknown Copyist
Condition: Good
A Late Edo, late 18th century manuscript edition containing Arai Hakuseki’s famous publication, Ezo Shi.
Also known as the Ezo Gazeteer, the work, initially written in the 5th year of the Kyoho Era (1720), is the oldest known publication about the culture of the Ainu peoples and Ezochi, or Ainu Lands (comprising of the islands of Hokkaido and Sakhalin) based on first-hand accounts, as opposed to folk stories or legends.
The interline spacing is different from the manuscript in the National Archives of Japan Digital Archive, and so the number of pages is different, but the entire text has been transcribed. The year written at the end of the text looks to be Tenmei 3, or 1783.
Most interesting, it appears that an additional text and illustrations have been bound in after as well, likely once a picture scroll. This makes for a rather unique composite manuscript.
Depicted are various scenes of an Ainu village, beginning with the Iomante ceremony, where a hand-raised brown bear cub is ceremonially killed, under the notion that the soul merely returns to its god-world, as well as an illustration of a cub in its pen/cage. There are then several scenes of a great banquet and festival being held, with various villagers in different attire, and some of the women depicted with tattoos around their mouths. There is also a fishing scene, and lastly, an Ainu family visiting what appears to be the house of a noble or lord.
One manuscript in folio (30 x 20.7 cm), 25 leaves
This manuscript is in good shape, with heavy wear and old worming and staining to the covers. There is a small worm track to the outer margin of several leaves, though most of it was repaired at some point. There is some staining to the inner margins, as well as old worm tracks that were repaired at some point.