of Japan in the Chinese language, which is recognised at the present day as the standard work of its class.
One of Mitsukuni's services to literature was the publication in 1678 of an anthology of masterpieces in the Wabun or pure Japanese style, under the title Fusō-jiu-yo-shiu given to it by the reigning Mikado, to whom it was dedicated. It is a fine specimen of the block-printing of the time.
A priest named Keichiu (1640–1701) was the chief pioneer of the revived study of the old literature. He was by birth a Samurai, but out of a love for learning abandoned the world for the quiet of a Buddhist monastery. His fame as a scholar reached the ears of Mitsukuni, who invited him in the most courteous manner to come to Yedo and be enrolled in his company of learned men. Keichiu declined this offer, upon which the Prince sent one of his staff to prosecute his studies under Keichiu's guidance. The latter, not to be outdone in courtesy, compiled and dedicated to Mitsukuni a treatise on the Manyōshiu, in twenty volumes, entitled Manyō Daishōki. The task of preparing a similar work had already been vainly assigned to another of the Prince's protégés, a learned but lazy Wagakusha called Shimōkawabe Chōriu. The Daishōki is now superseded, but it was in its day a work of the highest importance for the study of the old Japanese. Mitsukuni evinced his satisfaction by sending the author a present of one thousand ounces of silver and thirty rolls of silk.
Another book of Keichiu's was the Kokon Yozaishō which means literally "A Selection of Spare Timber, Old and New." It is a miscellaneous collection of material prepared by him in the course of his researches for the Daishōki, but not used in that work. He also contributed
