Tripitaka Index in 3 volumes compiled by Kawakami Gushan. Published in Tokyo by the Kyoto Hoien Collection. 1927, Vol. I: 1006pp, Vol II: 1025pp, Vol. III: 1022pp, 8 x 10.5", full black leather bound, with gilt detailing on the spine and front covers.
All volumes are in fair condition with some age-related wear and marks from previous use. The leather has the smallest amount of red-rot to the boards. Some shelf-wear to the extremities of each volume including some rubbing and bumping around the edges. The previous owner left purple-inked faculty stamps on the text-blocks, copyright pages and throughout the pages. General age-related toning and foxing to the pages. Volume three includes and black and white illustrated plate. Please see our photographs and ask any questions prior to purchasing.
A scarce complete three volume set of Indices on the Tripitaka, A Pali and Sanskrit term meaning “Triple Basket”. It is the traditional term for ancient collections of Buddhist sacred scriptures. The Tipiṭaka is composed of three main categories of texts that collectively constitute the Buddhist canon: Sutra Pitaka, the Vinaya Pitaka, and the Abhidhamma Pitaka. The Tripitaka is a part of the Chinese Buddhist canon; a specific collection of Chinese language Buddhist literature that is deemed canonical in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese Buddhism. The traditional term for the canon translates to the “Great Storage of Scriptures”.
This specific set of books once resided in the prestigious library of language scholar Johannes Rahder (1898-1988). Rahder was a Dutch Orientalist and professor of Japanese at the University of Leiden from 1931 through 1946, and at Yale University from 1947 through 1965. He was depicted in the work of the legendary Langston Hughes' (1901-1967) 'I Wonder, I Wander'. After a brief meeting between the two figures on the Trans-Siberian Railway in 1933, Hughes recognized Rahder as being a "...famous authority on obscure Oriental languages". Rahder's purple-inked Yale University faculty stamps can be found throughout these folios.
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