書付集 / Collection of official document drafts

This is a collection of official document drafts (anmonshū） compiled by Higa Niya, an attendant (otomo) of Ikei Village, Yonashiro Magiri. Copies of the agendas that were consulted within the royal government, notification letters, and other sample documents were used as texts for writing practices. In this document, the writer first copied letters in cursive style and then copied the same letters in block style on the right side. It consists of notification letters to collect contribution of gold and silver for Chinese envoy ships' (kansen) arrival, the documents of the discussion regarding a pardon to Nakahara who had been sentenced to deportation, and the draft letters to encourage the children of the gentry class (shizoku) to practice writing. Many of the documents in this book are the usual already-known drafts, however, there are some valuable drafts as well. For example, the documents regarding the promotion test for the secretary of the administrative office of Ryukyu (hyōjōsho hissha) was based on a consultation (sengi) that had been actually held at the royal government, but the names and the dates were omitted from the documents before they were released to the public. This book gives us a clue to understanding the historical value of anmonshū.

(Updated on March 4, 2016)