Emperor's Family Tree Written in Ink on Paper

An Important Cultural Property since 1941

Emperor's Family Tree Written in Ink on Paper (紙本墨書帝系図, Shihon Bokusho Teikeizu) is a document at the National Museum of Japanese History, 117 Jonai-cho, Sakura City, Chiba Prefecture, designated an Important Cultural Property on 3 July 1941. The owner is the National Institutes for the Humanities, an inter-university research corporation.

A listing in 1941 is among the earlier dates encountered here, after Kitano Tenmangu in 1897, the four commanders and the Ippen biography in 1900, and the Taima Mandara Engi in 1908.

Most of the properties covered here have been paintings; this is a document. Ink on paper means writing brushed in ink on a paper support.

An Inter-University Research Corporation as Owner

The owner field carries a category that has not appeared before: an inter-university research corporation.

Owners among the properties covered here have been temples and shrines, religious corporations, individuals, a public-interest foundation, the state through the Agency for Cultural Affairs, the National Institutes for Cultural Heritage, and a joint-stock company. A body of this kind is new.

An inter-university research corporation runs research institutes used jointly by several universities. The National Museum of Japanese History is one of them.

The property covered immediately before, the Nezame handscroll, is owned by a listed company. Two new categories of owner have now come in succession.

The system for protecting cultural properties does not restrict who may own them. Temples, companies and research institutes alike hold listed works.

Two Prefectures in One Field, for the Third Time

The prefecture field in the database holds two values, Chiba and Tokyo. The address is the National Museum of Japanese History at Sakura City, Chiba.

The Nezame handscroll held Osaka and Nara, and the Twelve Devas held Tokyo and Kyoto. This is the third such case running.

In every instance the Agency's own field for prefecture of location gives one value. Where the second comes from cannot be told from the record.

It may reflect the head office of the owner, but that cannot be confirmed, so this article offers no conjecture and notes only that two values stand.

Where ownership and keeping fall in different places, discrepancies of this kind keep arising.

How Genealogies Are Recorded

An individual record for this document could not be confirmed through Cultural Heritage Online. This article is built from the values in the database and from records for other genealogies.

The record for a set of genealogies of the priests of the Kamo shrines, sixteen scrolls made an Important Cultural Property on 20 June 1969, is instructive.

Its commentary closes: on this occasion, as further surviving examples of old genealogies, a scroll of the Fujiwara line held at Muishinji in Niigata Prefecture and a scroll of the Watarai line handed down at the Ise shrines were also designated, both rare works copied in the Nanbokucho period.

Surviving old genealogies are few, and copies of the Nanbokucho period are rare: both points are stated in the Agency's own record.

A privately run aggregation site dates this document to the Nanbokucho period, 1371. That could not be confirmed in the Agency's record, so no year is given here.

Consulting It

The document is at the National Museum of Japanese History, 117 Jonai-cho, Sakura City, Chiba Prefecture. It is a museum holding, not an object kept on permanent display.

Work on paper is vulnerable to light, so periods on view are limited.

Since the owner is a research body, consultation and study follow procedures the museum sets.

Exhibition plans can change, so check the museum's information before travelling.