Katsura-bon

The Katsura-bon is the oldest surviving Man'yōshū manuscript,^[1] and was copied around the middle of the Heian period.^[1] It is named for the Katsura-no-miya house, which had possession of the book at one time.^[1] It consists of 175 poems and an index of another 37.^[1] These are written on a single scroll containing 109 poems from Book IV,^[1] or roughly 1/3 of the book,^[1] along with another fragment (occasionally called the Toganoo-gire 栂尾切^[1]) containing 66 poems along with an index of 37 more.^[1]

It was likely copied by Minamoto no Kaneyuki [ja],^[1] although other theories propose Ki no Tsurayuki,^[1] Minamoto no Shitagō,^[1] Fujiwara no Yukinari^[1] and Minamoto no Toshifusa.^[1] It is written on beautiful coloured paper decorated with images of flowers, birds, grass and trees.^[1] It is said to show hardly any influence of jiten readings, and to preserve the vestiges of the koten readings.^[1][a]

The stylized seal imprinted on the reverse indicates that it was in the holdings of Emperor Fushimi.^[1] The scroll was held by Maeda Matsu, the wife of Maeda Toshiie,^[1] and in the time of Maeda Toshitsune entered the holdings of the Katsura-no-miya household.^[1] In 1881, with the extinction of the Katsura-no-miya house, it passed into the possession of imperial household.^[1] The fragment changed hands numerous times having been variously held by the Maeda clan,^[1] the Hachisuka clan,^[1] the Masuda clan,^[1] the Saitō clan,^[1] the Tanaka clan [ja],^[1] the Okamura clan^[1] and the Ikegami clan,^[1] as well as various institutions such as Ochanomizu University Library,^[1] the Gotoh Museum,^[1] the Idemitsu Museum of Arts^[1] and the Umezawa Museum (梅沢記念館 Umezawa Kinenkan).^[1]