Materials for Art Research: Dô no Onkura Okakemono Outasho Kiwame Daitsuke no Chô: A Reprint and Explication

The Dô no onkura okakemono outasho kiwame daitsukeno chô（銅御蔵御掛物御歌書極代付之帳）is one of the rare documents in the Tokyo National Research Institute for Cultural Properties collection, and is part of the Nakagawa Bunko library of Nakagawa Tadayori (1873-1928) that this institute purchased in 1929, the year before its opening. The overleaf of the inner cover and the back cover bear the bookplates of Suzaka daimyô Hori Naotada (1806- 1880), indicating that it was formerly part of Naotada’s Hananoya Bunko library. Naotada is renowned for his Fusô meiga den（扶桑名画伝）biographies of Japanese painters. The Dô no onkura okakemono outasho kiwame daitsukeno chô is a copy of the original record of kiwame (connoisseurship statements) and daitsuke (appraised values) made in 1691 (Genroku 4) of the Tokugawa shogunal collection, known as the Ryûei Gomotsu, by Kanô Masunobu (Tôun, 1625-1694), Kanô Tsunenobu (Yôboku, 1636-1713), Kohitsu Ryômin (1645-1701), Kohitsu Ryôchû (1656-1736) and others. The Dô no onkura okakemono outasho kiwame daitsukeno chô thus shows that the shogunate had its officially appointed Kohitsu and Kanô family members evaluate and price the calligraphy and paintings in its collection as of 1691. The earliest Ryûei gomotsushû volumes are said to have been compiled in 1644 (Kan’ei 21) by Matsudaira Nobutsuna (1596-1662), who was then the shogunate’s osukiya shihai, officer in charge of the management of shogunal collection. Later the Ryûei Gomotsu items held by the shogunate were caught in the Great Fire of Meireki in 1657 with the majority destroyed. The collection was then rebuilt through gifts presented by various daimyô to the shogunate. This Dô no onkura okakemono outasho kiwame daitsukeno chô confirms that the collection had been fully rebuilt in terms of both quality and quantity by 1691. While there are some additional notations inherent to a copy of an original document, this Dô no onkura okakemono outasho kiwame daitsukeno chô is a rare extant document that faithfully conveys the original’s connoisseurship content. We thus present in this article both a reprint of the entire document and a discussion of some of its most noteworthy appraisal cases.