2026-05-05 Renewal of the Taishō Tripiṭaka Base and Collation Texts Database

We are pleased to announce that the Taishō Tripiṭaka Base and Collation Texts Database has been renewed and relaunched as of May 5, 2026.

This database systematically organizes bibliographical information on the base texts and collation texts used in the compilation of the Taishō Shinshū Daizōkyō (Taishō Tripiṭaka), covering the Chinese-language section of Volumes 1 to 55. It also provides links to related images and external databases.

In this renewal, we have strengthened integration with the Zōjō-ji Three Buddhist Canons Digital Archive and materials held in university libraries, and reconstructed the database to improve its practical usability for both bibliographical research and the use of source materials.

We hope you will make full use of this resource.

Main Updates

  • To enhance search functionality, a new work-level search option, “Search by Work” has been added. The former text-level search has been renamed “Search by Textual Witness.”
  • The structure of the detail view has been reorganized, enabling hierarchical navigation through:
    1. Basic Information / External Links
    2. List of Base and Collation Texts
    3. Bibliographic Information for the Textual Witness
  • Integration with the Zōjō-ji Three Buddhist Canons Digital Archive has been implemented, enabling direct access to images of each witness.
  • Links to external databases, including the SAT Taishō Tripiṭaka Text Database, have been enhanced to improve access to both texts and images.
  • A new function allows multiple witness images to be opened simultaneously with a single click for side-by-side comparison.
  • Links to external databases (bibliographical and authority data) have been expanded.
  • The user interface has been comprehensively redesigned to improve usability in both search and detail views.
  • Full-text data of the Yūren-ja Jiaxing edition Buddhist Canon, generated through OCR, are already available in the Yūren-ja Jiaxing edition Buddhist Canon Database. In this database, only texts that have completed proofreading are accessible from the “Text” field in Tier 3 (“Bibliographic Information for the Textual Witness”), where they can be viewed alongside the original images using a dedicated TEI viewer.