TYPE: Book
DIMENSIONS: 7 1/2 X 10 1/2 inches (closed)
COMPONENTS: 3 volumes bound as one; 84 pages
NOTES: One of the earliest and most detailed accounts on the first Christians in Japan I have seen.
LANGUAGE
Japanese
ITEM ID: 1118
Kirishitan jikki (True account of the Christians in Japan) Kirishitan jikki (True account of the Christians in Japan)
DATE
Decade: 1750s
Century: 18th (1701-1800)
Notes: c1750
According to Gonzalo Sec, “Early Japanese manuscript on Christianity. This is a fictionalized story of the Christians’ arrival to Japan, written around the mid-18th century. There are many hand-written variations of this banned story circulating. I find it particularly interesting that this one has notes and corrections from a reader.”
According to Peter Francis Kornicki FBA, a English Japanologist and Emeritus Professor of Japanese at Cambridge University and Deputy Warden of Robinson College, Cambridge, “The title is Kirishitan jikki (True account of the Christians in Japan) and there are quite a few copies extant in Japan.
There are two ownership seals on the first page: one reads Takefuji zōsho (book belongs to Takefuji) and the other Kobayashi-ke in (seal of the Kobayashi family).”
Asia/Africa
This collection houses art and artifacts from China, Ethiopia, India and Japan.
