About

Table of Contents

1. Purpose

This site publishes the “Taishō Shinshū Daizōkyō Base and Collated Texts Database,” created to make the Chinese portions (Volumes 1–55) of the Taishō Shinshū Daizōkyō (hereafter “Taishō Tripiṭaka”) easier to use.

It provides access to bibliographic information and images of manuscripts and printed editions that were used as base texts and collated texts when the Taishō Tripiṭaka was compiled. Text data will also be prepared and released progressively.

Back to Contents

 

2. Overview

① About the Taishō Tripiṭaka

The Taishō Tripiṭaka is a major collection of Buddhist scriptures published in Japan using modern movable type between 1922 and 1934. It consists of 100 volumes in total: Main Collection (55 vols.), Supplement (30 vols.), Pictorial Supplement (12 vols.), and the Shōwa Hōbō Sōmokuroku (3 vols.), containing 3,493 works in 13,520 fascicles.

As base text, the Koryŏ recarved edition—one of the Three Editions of Buddhist Sacred Canons stored at Zōjō-ji—was primarily used. As collated texts, the Song Sixi edition and the Yuan Puning Temple edition stored at Zōjō-ji were consulted, along with the Fuzhou edition held by the Imperial Household Agency Archives and Mausolea Department (hereafter “Kyūhon (宮本)”), the Shōsō-in Shōgozō collection, the Jiaxing edition held by Yūren-ja (originally a sub-temple of Zōjō-ji), copies in university libraries such as Taishō University, Ōtani University, and Ryūkoku University, and old manuscripts and prints preserved at historic temples such as Tō-ji, Ninna-ji, Kōzan-ji, and Hase-dera. The Taishō Tripiṭaka has since been reprinted and issued in popular editions, and further transformed into various forms such as web-based text and image databases, becoming the most widely used standard edition for Buddhist textual studies.

 

② About the Taishō Tripiṭaka Base and Collated Texts

In compiling the scriptures included in the Taishō Tripiṭaka, one text was selected as the base text and several other texts were used as collated texts. Which texts served as base and collated texts for each scripture can be determined from the Taishō Shinshū Daizōkyō Kan’dō Mokuroku (Catalogue of the Collations for the Taishō Tripiṭaka, in Shōwa Hōbō Sōmokuroku, vol. 1, pp. 153–656; hereafter “Kan’dō Mokuroku”) and from the footnotes to Volumes 1–55 of the Taishō Tripiṭaka.

This database gathers and cross-references information on the Taishō Tripiṭaka’s base and collated texts recorded in the Kan’dō Mokuroku and in the footnotes. It thereby enables users to view, at a glance, which texts were used as base and collated texts when each scripture was compiled.

 

③ On Bibliographic Data, Images, and Texts

We conduct bibliographic surveys at institutions holding the texts used as the Taishō Tripiṭaka’s base and collated texts, and are working to expand the database by digitizing bibliographic data, images, and text. Where materials have already been digitized and published by external institutions, we interlink databases and provide links to their bibliographic records, images, and texts.

Back to Contents

 

3. Data Sources

The sources for the data included in this database are listed below. For databases created by external institutions, links are provided to their Terms of Use and Secondary Use Policy.

① Individual volumes of the Taishō Tripiṭaka

  • We collected information on the Taishō Tripiṭaka volume in which each scripture is included, its division, distribution number, and publication date.
  • We checked the footnotes throughout and extracted information regarding the base and collated texts for each scripture.

 

② Kan’dō Mokuroku

  • We gathered information on the titles of scriptures included in the Taishō Tripiṭaka (including readings in multiple languages, variant and abbreviated titles), number of fascicles, compilers/authors (including their active dynasty), locations within various canons (Koryŏ, Song, Yuan, Ming editions; Reduced-size Edition (Shukusatsuzō); Manji Canon; and the Nanjō Catalogue (NJ)), as well as information on base and collated texts.
  • We digitized the entire first edition (privately held) of the Kan’dō Mokuroku and made it available via IIIF.

 

③ SAT Taishō Tripiṭaka Text Database, 2018 Edition (SAT 2018) (hereafter “SAT”)

  • We collected information such as Taishō Tripiṭaka numbers and scripture titles.
  • We collected URLs for the opening portions of the Taishō Tripiṭaka text data and page images and created links.
  • For SAT’s Terms of Use, see here.

 

④ Jiaxing Edition Buddhist Canon held by Yūren-ja (formerly the Hōon-zō of Zōjō-ji)

 

⑤ The “Kyūhon (宮本)” in the Catalogue of Chinese Classics held by the Imperial Household Agency Archives and Mausolea Department

 

⑥ Materials held by university libraries

 

⑦ Shigeo Kamata et al. (eds.), Complete Encyclopedia of the Buddhist Canon (Yūzankaku, Aug. 1998)

  • We collected information on alternative titles, number of fascicles, and names of translators/authors for each scripture.

 

⑧ “Authority Database of Buddhist Tripitaka Catalogues”

  • We collected each scripture’s “Standardized Identifier” (the scripture ID assigned by the “Authority Database of Buddhist Tripitaka Catalogues”) and information on authors/translators, and added links to the relevant pages.

Back to Contents

 

4. Update History

After the initial public release in July 2021, we added basic and bibliographic information and images and improved the system; a first major update was released in November 2022. In September 2024 we implemented interlinking with the Buddhist Texts Bibliographic Database, and following further user-interface enhancements and other improvements, a third major update was released in May 2025.

We will continue to add bibliographic data, images, and text on a rolling basis. Major data updates will be announced on the Toyo Bunko website and within this database.

Back to Contents

 

5. Project Team

Members of this JSPS KAKENHI project are as follows.

Principal Investigator

Co-Investigators

Back to Contents

 

6. Related Research

Back to Contents

 

7. Acknowledgments

For the digitization and publication of the Yūren-ja materials, we are deeply grateful to Chief Priest Aoki Shōken and Deputy Chief Priest Hosokawa Akihiro of Yūren-ja for their generous consideration and cooperation.

We thank Daizō Shuppan Co., Ltd. for recognizing the public value of this database and granting permission to publish the Kan’dō Mokuroku digitally.

We thank the libraries of Ōtani University, Ryūkoku University, and Taishō University for their cooperation in bibliographic surveys and document reproduction of manuscripts and printed editions in their collections, and for permitting digital publication within this database.

We also acknowledge the contributions of Mr. Kōsuke Fujimoto (then a graduate student at Meiji University) to the addition of basic information (FY2021–2023) and to making the Yūren-ja image data IIIF-compliant.

We express our sincere gratitude to all those involved.

This database was created with support from JSPS KAKENHI Grant Numbers 18K00073, 21H04345, and 25H00464.

Back to Contents

 

  • (Note) The “Catalogue of Chinese Classics held by the Imperial Household Agency Archives and Mausolea Department” is part of the results of JSPS KAKENHI Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A), “Reexamination of the provenance of classical Chinese books in the Imperial Household Agency Archives and Mausolea Department: Towards the construction of a digital archive” (PI: Tomohiko Sumiyoshi, 24242009, FY2012–2016), and Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A), “The reconstruction and dissemination of the Edo shogunate Momijiyama Bunko: Philology through digitization of classical Chinese texts in the Imperial Household Agency Archives and Mausolea Department” (same PI, 20H00013, FY2020–2024). The author participated as a Co-Investigator and was responsible for compiling the bibliography of the “Kyūhon”. For the bibliography of the “Kyūhon”, see the catalogue section “III Song Editions,” entry “38. [Buddhist Canon] (also known as Yi qie jing) 1,454 titles in 5,733 fascicles, plus Zihan shiyin 532 fascicles”, in Zushoryō Kanseki Sōkō (図書寮漢籍叢考), ed. Research Group on the Chinese Classics in the Imperial Household Agency Archives and Mausolea Department (Kyūko Shoin, March 2018). Back