Eight orihon (accordion format), finely woodblock-printed, of the complete Lotus Sutra [S.: Saddharmapundarikasutra; J.: Myohorengekyo 妙法蓮華経 ]

23-33 characters per column; 6 columns per page. Text-block height: 230 mm. Eight vols. (190 x 8600; 10,000; 9300; 8200; 8900; 8600; 8000; 7000 mm.). Tall narrow 8vo, orig. semi-stiff dark blue boards (minor rubbing), orig. block-printed mica-dusted title labels on upper covers, each entitled "Shinpan Myohorengekyo" ["new [carved] boards for the Myohorengekyo"] & volume number. [Japan]: early to mid-Edo?


A very rare - apparently unrecorded - edition of the complete Lotus Sutra, handsomely carved throughout in hiragana, allowing those unskilled in reading kanji to study the text. The vast majority of sutra printed in early Japan were carved in kanji (kanbun style) or a mixture of kanji and hiragana. NIJL lists only two editions of the Lotus Sutra printed entirely in hiragana: a 1682 edition, which is clearly not our edition, and another, undated, edition held by the Sakamoto Ryumon Bunko of Nara. Sadly, their copy is not digitized, and we are unable to compare it with our example. In our copy, only the text titles on the first column of each volume are carved in kanji; the text is carved entirely in hiragana.


The Lotus Sutra is the most influential of all sutra and "was highly influential in East Asia, inspiring both a range of devotional practices as well as the creation of new Buddhist schools that had no Indian analogues."-Buswell & Lopez, eds., The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, p. 730. For several Japanese schools of Buddhism, the Lotus Sutra remains their central text and is considered to be the only valid Buddhist sutra for the Degenerate Age.


This sutra has been printed on excellent paper, which has been treated with a pronounced sprinkling of mica dust. The printing is uniformly fine throughout, with strong black strokes.


A fine set, preserved in a handsome old wooden box. Two volumes with minor worming.