Children’s books from the early Edo period
A manual, woodblock-printed newspaper, paper bag, scrap paper, and a hand-copied picture scroll.
Overview
10 children’s picture books (with 195 notes) / Edo period (seventeen century) / Izawa-cho neighborhood community association
Prefecturally-designated tangible cultural property
(old books) (July 26, 1989)
Obiya Rirokichi, an Izawa merchant, lost his son in 1678.
In order to memorialize his son, Obiya put the child’s favorite picture books and calligraphy papers in a bag and placed them inside a statue of the Bodhisattva Jizo, where they remained until their discovery in 1935 when the statue was repaired.
A total of 10 children’s picture books. These are the oldest of their kind in Japan, and as such, they are invaluable resources for the history of children’s literature in Japan.
