BUDDHISM.

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Daihan'nya haramitta-kyo ("The Great Sutra of the Perfection of Wisdom"). Kasuga-ban, Volume 237. A well-preserved example of early temple printing in Japan, inscribed by Tachibana Otome, a daughter of the influential Tachibana family. This type of scroll was printed between the 12th and 14th centuries, and this example has the thick, bold strokes typical of the process."Kasuga-ban" scrolls refer to woodblock printed sutras originating in the early-mid Kamakura period. The first examples were produced at Kofuku-ji temple and all contained the word "Kasuga" (the patron deity of the temple) in their colophons. However, over time "the term Kasuga-ban became used more loosely, in a wider sense, to denote publications of the Nara monasteries in general, not only of the Kofuku-ji. The printing of Kasuga-ban in this broader sense flourished throughout the Kamakura period and up to the end of Muromachi (ca. 1570)" (Gardner, p. 159).This example was printed using blocks first cut at Kofuku-ji in the Karoku period (1222-1227), sometimes referred to as the "Karoku-ban" set. The inscription at the end of the scroll reveals that it was commissioned by Tachibana Otome. We have traced two other complete chapters with the same inscription, held at the National Museum of Japanese History and Tsurumi University Library, which were commissioned in approximately 1285. The Tachibana was one of the four noble houses that held the most sway in the Nara and Heian periods, although they were eclipsed

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