Asian Works of Art

ink on paper, with notes and comments in red, sixteen sheets mounted as a handscroll (height 9 7/8 inches., 25.1 cm), enclosed in a wooden storage box.

EXECEDINGLY RARE handwritten manuscript copy of scriptures translated and delivered by Xuanzang, written in Japan during the Nara period. Annotations and comments in red ink providing pronunciation guides and reading aides of the Chinese text were added nearly 500 years later by the keeper of the sutra repository at Kōfuku-ji temple, who began work in 1233 compiling the Nara period manuscripts, and assigned each of them an individual number of 600. The present lot, volume 334, represents one of less than forty surviving works, the majority of which are treasured as important cultural artifacts in Japan.

日本天平朝奈良時代寫經（8世紀）《大般若波羅蜜多經》卷第三百三十四
三藏法師玄奘奉召譯，初分善學品第五十三之四
黃麻紙，一卷附盒

紙高25.1 cm，共十五紙，全長約9米。首尾完整，内有硃砂句讀，末有“永恩”朱跋，世稱“永恩經”。

永恩是興福寺的藏司，興福寺為奈良千年古剎，創辦自聖武天皇（701—756），存有大量盛唐寫經，因此作為藏司的永恩得以接觸到大量古經。貞永二年（1233）起，永恩收集天平及平安初期大般若經六百卷，全部校點后獻給自己的祖神河內國玉。可惜隨著時代漸遠和歷遭兵燹，六百卷早已逸散，全世界現存不過四十部，大多保留在日本寺院和國家級博物館，並被指定為重要文化財。

本次上拍的第三百三十四卷來自英國著名藏書家科林·弗蘭克林（1923-2020），弗氏是英國第二大圖書館——牛津博德利圖書館的主要捐贈人，也是日本版畫與抄本專家，此經早年得自日本一著名古董商，雖無年款，但書法雄渾秀麗，富有唐風，距今千余載而觸手如新，非常珍貴。