Wider Knowledge of The Genki

Although the Genki was inaccessible, its existence was known. Those interested in it--that is, in the Kasuga deity -- had therefore to be content with the text, of which copies appear to have been available. For example, according to Daijoin jisha zojiki (end of the entry for Entoku 3.7 [1491]), Daijoin owned a Kasuga genki in one scroll, which can only have been the text alone (Kondo 1953:279). Kondo (1953:280) also cited a similar manuscript among the Yasuike documents listed as belonging to the Tenri University Library.

Among those who continued to read such copies, or to teach others from them, no doubt fewer and fewer recognized the people, places, and circumstances mentioned in the work. As in the case of other engi as well (Kondo 1953:280), there developed a need for more information that was met by kikigaki: in effect, compilations of notes on the text. Several from the late Muromachi period survive, including the Eishun o-kikigaki already mentioned. Kondo (1953) published another that appears to be, like Eishun's, from the sixteenth century. The existence of these kikigaki shows that interest in the subject was still alive nearly three hundreds years after the Genki was completed, and that at least some knowledge of the work must have reached many people who could not possibly have hoped ever to see the original.

Copies of the The Genki

The only way-- a very expensive one -- to make the whole Genki accessible to a wider audience was to copy it. Such copies began to be made in the Edo period, although even then no copy could be made without the permission of the head of the Fujiwara clan[ (Ohigashi 1983b:6).

Ohigashi Nobukazu ( 1983b:6) listed the presently known complete copies of the Genki. They are as follows.

(1) One owned by the Kajuji family. Ohigashi dated it a little earlier than the Yomei Bunko copy. Its fate is unknown, though it existed as late as 1807 when the last part of the present Kasuga copy was made from it.

(2) The Yomei Bunko copy (Yomei Bunko-bon) was made between 1716 and 1735 by the Rinpa artist Watanabe Shiko (1683-1755), a retainer of the Konoe house. The text was written out by "Konoe Yorakuin," no doubt a senior member of the Konoe famiiy at that time (Kyoto Kokuritsu Hakubutsukan 1981 :221). This copy is owned by the Yomei Bunko in Kyoto, where in 1983 I had the privilege of seeing it. The paintings are beautifully executed (on paper), and the condition of the scrolls is excellent. At the rate of four scrolls per visit, it took five weekly visits to see the whole Genki properly. Simply looking at each picture of so large a work takes a good deal of time.

(3) The Kasuga copy (kasuga-bon, formerly Kuwana-bon) was copied partly from the original and partly from no. I above. It was begun at the order of Tayasu Munetake (1715-71), the second son of the shogun Yoshimune, and finished by Munetake's son, Matsudaira Sadanobu (1758-1829), in 1807. Ohigashi (1983a:87) suggested that Munetake may have first been shown the Genki by his father as a boy, in 1725, when the Genki was in Edo. Munetake obtained access to the original, for the purpose of making the copy, with help from the Konoe family, probably in the 1760s. The first, completed copy was lost in a fire. Munetake had the work begun again, but only half the copy (through scroll 10) was finished by the time he died. The the Genki disappeared, as related above, and after its recovery all access to it was cut off. Sadanobu had to have his father's copy completed from the copy then owned by the Kajuji family (Ohigashi 1983a:87-89).

Since 1983, the Kasuga copy has been the property of the Kasuga Shrine. It is remarkable for having twenty-two scrolls, rather than the usual twenry-one. The extra scroll consists of the text of Genki 1.1, together with Munetake's critique of it. The learned Munetake, well versed in kokugaku thought, could not stomach 1.l, and felt obliged to set it apart so as not to mar the rest of the work.

(4)The Tokyo National Museum copy (Tokyo Kokuritsu Hakubukan-bon) no. I was copied from the original in 1845.

(5) The National Diet lrbrary copy (Kokuritsu Kokkai Toshokan-bon) was made from the Kasuuga Copy in 1870.

(6) The Tokyo National Museum copy no. 2 was made from the original in 1935.

Thanks to modern printing, the Genki has become widely accessible in the twentieth century, although it cannot be said that photographs are as satisfactory as a proper copy.
Perhaps the first photographed reproduction was published in 1929 by Yuzankaku, and others (listed in the bibliography) have followed more recently.