[琉球板]大學 / Great Learning (Ryukyu Reprint)

One woodblock-print book; twenty pages; 25.5 cm by 19 cm.
Both the book’s publisher and year of publication are unknown. “April 1941, Ko Hin’nan” (Hamao Togawa’s pseudonym) is written in ink on the back cover, “March 4, 1869, Tōbaru Village, Nakamatsunushii” inside the front cover, and “Kubanushii” inside the back cover. The book’sprint closely resembles Ryukyu-ban rongo (Analects of Confucius [Ryukyu Reprint]) and is likely to be one of the books from Ryukyu-ban shisho (Four Books [Ryukyu Reprint]). The books Daigaku (Great Learning) and Chūyō (Doctrine of the Mean) were originally included in Raiki (Book of Rites), but they were made independent by the founder of Neo-Confucianism, Zhū Xī, and then combined with Rongo (Analects of Confucius) and Mōshi (Discourses of Mencius) to form Shisho (Four Books)—the basic texts of Confucianism. In Ryukyu, these books were adopted as textbooks for Japanese literature and cultural studies, and it spread as required reading for the warrior class. Chōhei Mutō (1879-1938) wrote in the section Ryukyu Hōshoshi (Bibliographic Survey of Ryukyu) in his book Seinan Bun’un Shiron (Essays on the Cultural History of the South-Western Provinces in Japan) that the Royal Shō Family had preserved the Ryukyu reprint woodblocks of Shisho Shicchū (Commentary on the Four Books) and Shisho Rigenshō (Excerpts of the Four Books).