Engishiki, Surviving Part of Volume 12 with Volumes 14 and 16

Three Scrolls, National Treasure since 1952

Engishiki, Surviving Part of Volume 12 with Volumes 14 and 16 (延喜式, Engishiki) is a Heian-period work of calligraphy and text owned by Amanosan Kongoji in Osaka Prefecture, designated a National Treasure on 22 February 1952. The quantity is three scrolls and the designation number 00147.

The field for designation as an Important Cultural Property is blank in the Agency's database: it went to National Treasure without that earlier step, the twenty-fourth such case covered here.

The commentary reads: a work of the Heian period. That makes the twenty-second one-sentence commentary here. The address field is blank as well, the seventh such case.

The Date Field Is Empty and a Year Sits in Another

When 延喜式〈巻第十二残巻、第十四／第十六〉 dates from is recorded in an unexpected place.

The fields for period, western year, writer, dimensions and form are all empty.

The field for supplementary notes, however, records that volume 14 carries a red colophon of the seventh month, twelfth day of the second year of Daiji, made when reading marks were transferred.

That year corresponds to 1127. Transferring reading marks means copying over the marks that guide a Chinese text into Japanese, and the colophon is written in red.

The date field stands empty while a date survives in another field. It applies only to volume 14 of the three.

With the Vajrabhadrani Sutra, a colophon's cyclical date fixed the year 686; at the Myooin pagoda, an inscription on the finial gave the day. Those served as grounds for a date and were written as such.

Here the clue lies in the notes field rather than the date field. The fields are not used consistently.

Only One of the Three Is a Surviving Part

The title 延喜式〈巻第十二残巻、第十四／第十六〉 carries a difference of condition.

The word for a surviving part attaches to volume 12 alone.

Volumes 14 and 16 carry no such word. One of the three is incomplete and the other two are not.

The punctuation is uneven too: a comma separates the first from the second, and a slash the second from the third.

Related entries follow the same form. Titles for the Wenxuan commentary, a Nirvana Sutra commentary and a medical compendium all mark which volumes are incomplete within the title.

With the Rishukyo on white-line paper, what was absent gave rise to a by-name. Here the title states which volume is the incomplete one.

Another Copy of the Same Work Is Listed Separately

延喜式〈巻第十二残巻、第十四／第十六〉 is not the only manuscript of the work to hold a listing.

A related entry gives a copy transmitted in the Kujo family: the same work in another line of transmission.

With the Taisanji main halls, two National Treasures of one name stood in Hyogo and Ehime. With the Saibara-fu, one title covered a National Treasure and an Important Cultural Property.

In those cases the properties shared a name. Here the underlying work is the same and the copies differ.

The titles distinguish them differently. This one names the volumes it contains; the other names the family that kept it.

Related entries also list single volumes, numbered two, six, seven and so on. One work is recorded several times over, gathered in different ways.

Seeing It

The scrolls of 延喜式〈巻第十二残巻、第十四／第十六〉 belong to Amanosan Kongoji. The address field in the Agency's database is blank, though the temple stands in Kawachinagano City, Osaka Prefecture.

They are a temple holding, not kept on permanent display; work on paper is vulnerable to light and shown only briefly.

The designation number is 00147. The property falls under calligraphy and texts rather than crafts.

Related entries include a courtier's diary, a commentary on the Wenxuan, a Nirvana Sutra commentary, a poetry contest record and a fragmentary exposition of the Diamond Sutra, all Heian works of calligraphy and text.

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