54 Zokyo Shoin-bon and 20 Nichizo-bon (unpublished) of Zokyo Shoin Collection have been newly digitized and released

Zokyo Shoin Collection consists of Buddhist sutras and books collected from the archives of temples by a publisher in Kyoto, Zokyo Shoin and is categorized in four sections: “Zokyo Shoin-bon”, “Nichizo-bon (published)”, “Nichizo-bon (unpublished)” and “Shinshu-bon”. Among these, 54 items from “Zokyo Shoin-bon” and 20 “Nichizo-bon (unpublished)” have been newly digitized and released. As of November 20, 2019, Kyoto University Rare Materials Digital Archive provides 1,290,729 images of 14,328 titles.

Zokyo Shoin-bon is a collection of Buddhist sutras and books used as original text for Dainihon Zoku Zokyo, which was compiled under the leadership of Tatsue Nakano (1871-1934) and published by Zokyo Shoin from April 1905 to 1912. Dainihon Zoku Zokyo consists of 750 volumes of Buddhist sutras and books in 150 cases selected from 6,957 volumes of original texts written by over 950 Buddhists collected from the archives of temples. Zoku Zokyo includes many noted writings by Indian or Chinese Buddhists, which previously published Dainihon Kotei Kunten Daizokyo did not cover.

Nichizo-bon (unpublished) is composed of the books on Japanese Buddhism collected for a planned but unrealized sequel to Nihon Daizokyo, a Zokyo in 48 volumes compiled in Japan including writings by more than 300 Japanese Buddhists. The collection includes writings by Buddhist priests of great learning of every Japanese Buddhist sect.

The digitization of part of the materials released this time is supported by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (JP19HP8002).