serious
interruption. Kyoto was laid in ruins, and rare books lay on the
roadside, no one caring to pick them up.

PRIVATE SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES

Throughout the Ashikaga period the Kyoto university existed in name
only, and students of Japanese literature in the provinces
disappeared. A few courtiers, as Nakahara, Dye, Sugawara, Miyoshi,
etc., still kept up the form of lecturing but they did not receive
students at large. Nevertheless, a few military magnates, retaining
some appreciation of the value of erudition, established schools and
libraries. Among these, the Kanazawa-bunko and the Ashikaga-gakko
were the most famous. The former had its origin in the closing years
of the Kamakura Bakufu. It was founded during the reign of Kameyama
(1260-1274) by Sanetoki, grandson of Hojo Yoshitoki. A large
collection of Chinese and Japanese works filled its shelves, and all
desirous of studying had free access. Akitoki, son of Sanetoki,
adopted Kanazawa as his family name and added largely to the library.
He caused the ideographs Kanazawa-bunko to be stamped in black on all
Confucian works, and in red on Buddhist.

It is recorded in the Hojo Kudaiki that men of all classes, laymen
and priests alike, were shut up daily in this library where they
studied gratis, and that Akitoki's son, Sadaaki, was as ardent a
student as his father, so that men spoke of him as well fitted to be
regent (shikken), thus showing that literary skill was counted a
qualification for high office. Fire, the destroyer of so many fine
relics of Japanese civilization, visited this library more than once,
but during the reign of Go-Hanazono (1429-1464) it was restored and
extended by the Uesugi family, who also rebuilt and endowed schools
for the study of Japanese literature in the province of Kotsuke.
Among these schools was the Ashikaga-gakko, under the presidency of a
priest, Kaigen, in the day of whose ninth successor, Kyuka, the
pupils attending the schools totalled three thousand. A few great
families patronized literature without recourse to priests. This was
notably the case with the Ouchi, whose tradal connexions gave them
special access to Chinese books. Ouchi Yoshitaka, in particular,
distinguished himself as an author. He established a library which
remained for many generations; he sent officials to China to procure
rare volumes, and it is incidentally mentioned that he had several
manuscripts printed in the Middle Kingdom, although the art of