UNESCO started the Memory of the World Programme (世界の記憶) in 1992 to specifically bring attention to the preservation of historical documents that have been influential throughout the world, with the goal of increasing recognition and access to these cultural achievements. Each country is allowed to submit one application per year of a document or collection of documents associated with an institution or an individual.
Within Japan, applications based on UNESCO guidelines are first sent to MEXT, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. MEXT chooses one and then passes it to the Gaimushō or Ministry for Foreign Affairs, which then prepares English-language documents for the UNESCO application. UNESCO chooses which to accept, and those selected are then formally added to The Memory of the World Register.
Zōjōji was originally built in Musashi province in 1393 as a seminary for the Jōdo sect in the Kantō area. When Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543–1616) established his provincial rule in Kantō in 1590, he chose Zōjōji to be his family temple (bodaiji). When he became Shogun and moved into the Castle that today is the imperial palace, he moved Zōjōji to its current location in nearby Shiba.
Between 971 and 983, Northern Song Emperor Taizu (d. 976) initiated a massive project to print for the first time the entire Chinese-language Buddhist canon, the Dazang jing 大藏經 (J. Daizōkyō, Skt. tripiṭaka), requiring over the carving of text into 130,000 wood blocks. A complete set of more than 5000 volumes from this first Chinese printing was gifted to Japan, and Fujiwara no Michinaga (966-1027) built a temple in Kyoto to honor it, but the temple burned down after a lightning strike at the end of the Heian period and all was lost. Individual emperors created merit for themselves and their dynastic rule in China and Korea, including the Liao dynasty in Manchuria and the Mongols in China, etc. by repeating this printing endeavor, each time at enormous expense. Scholars, however, know that each canon contains editorial changes. The blocks for the first Goryeo canon were carved in Korea between 1011 and 1087 but were lost in the Mongol invasion in the 1232; a second Goryeo canon was completed by 1249 while the Mongols still ruled the peninsula, but those blocks were carefully protected and survive today—this second carving effort is in the Memory of the World Register. Japan had not endeavored to carve blocks for its own complete canon prior to the Edo period, so any printed canon from the continent had enormous value. Recognizing this, when Ieyasu became shōgun he sent ships to China and Korea seeking to purchase canonical printings. This effort yielded three different sets that were brought back to Japan at this time: one printed 1250~1276 (Southern Song period), one printed 1298~1325 (Yuan period), and a 1458 printing of the second Goryeo edition. By 1610, Ieyasu formally donated all three canons to Zōjōji, where a sutra storehouse was completed in 1613 to preserve them; this Kyōzō 經藏 was rebuilt in 1800 based on technological innovations to make it more secure.
Despite fires, earthquakes, and the destruction of every other building at Zōjōji by the carpet bombing of Tokyo in WW2, the books in its Kyōzō were preserved intact. In the 1880s, the canons were taken out, their contents compared, and this formed the text in the 1885 Japanese publication of the first movable type printed edition of the Chinese-language Buddhist canon, designated as a National Treasure in 1899. In the Taishō period, scholars used these same Zōjōji materials to print a revised edition of the 1885 printing, now containing footnotes documenting variant readings. Today, this Taishō canon remains the standard Chinese edition of the Buddhist canon used worldwide. The availability of the content in both modern editions has had a huge impact in the fields of Buddhist Studies, Art History, Literary History, etc.
Starting in 2021 Zōjōji therefore applied to MEXT for UNESCO recognition of the three canons they had preserved and that had been so valuable for modern scholarship. In the end, they had to apply three times. I was asked by the preparation committee serving Zōjōji to translate each of the applications into English upon their completion for the MEXT evaluations, and Ryoze Wada, a PhD student in our Buddhist Studies Program, provided significant help. In 2021 and 2022 MEXT did select our applications, which then went via the Gaimushō to UNESCO in 2022 and 2023, where they failed to be accepted. The only feedback given was that we had not demonstrated the value of the books for “world culture”, despite the fact that the application made clear that of the three canons, only the Goryeo version is extant outside of the Zōjōji collection. In 2023, Zōjōji decided for a third and final try, and a huge effort was made by scholars throughout Japan, Gaimushō staff, and by Ryoze and me to craft language that would persuade both MEXT and the UNESCO committee of the value of our third attempt for recognition in 2024. Anxiety was high, leading to the exchange of numerous rewrites in both Japanese and English. In support, the Jōdoshū hired people to digitize every page of all three canons and make the data available to the public on the Zōjōji website. Previously the UNESCO decision was given to us in October of the application year, but it was not until on April 17th of this year that we received word that the Three Canons at Zōjōji temple in Japan had been approved to be added to the Memory of the World Register. There will be a formal ceremony celebrating UNESCO recognition at Zōjōji on July 1st.
ANN televised announcement
https://youtu.be/gPCpNMeJTZ4
Zōjōji website with the scanned material:
https://jodoshuzensho.jp/zojoji_sandaizo/
