萬川集海
The Bansenshūkai
10,000 Rivers Converging into the Sea

There is no intention here to discuss the history or origins of the Bansenshūkai, that has been adequately addressed by several others and the reader may consult them for those purposes. However, given the nature of the Library Collection of Shihan Weymouth, and the important status of the art of Ninjutsu as one of the more prominent of the Auxiliary arts within Jujutsu itself... we did not think that the collection could possibly be complete without the encyclopedia called the Bansenshūkai.
One thing I really must explain here about the Bansenshūkai is that there are several different versions of this encyclopedic set of books, some of them are quite a bit smaller than the main versions, and could be called an abridgment of sorts for the larger main form(s) of the Bansenshūkai as a set. To speak of the alleged Iga Ryū Bansenshūkai version and the Kōga Ryū Bansenshūkai version as if this is the main source of the tetxual diffeencing would be one hell of a mistatement. It has very little to do with it. These differing versions, whether large or small do indeed show quite a bit of textual variation. They may have modest or quite sizable sub-sections that do not exist within any of the other versions of the Bansenshūkai itself, while also omitting minor sections. Please bear this in mind when comparing the Bansenshūkai version that I have presented copies of here, such as when comparing it to this form of the text, one sees that there are major differences between the two (2) versions of the text.

The copies I presented here come from a known princple version of the Bansenshūkai, the source of which was this website. That set of copies has existed on the Internet before and quite often drops off completely... only to re-surface some number of years later (leaving everyone without the benefit of securing a copy of this important Japanese work in the meantime.) Since it was so generously provided in the first place, I decided to offer copies of the Bansenshūkai here in the Library Collection of Shihan Weymouth, hoping to make the collection more complete.

PLEASE RIGHT CLICK "OPEN IN NEW TAB"
ON THE PICTURES BELOW TO GET TO
 THAT VOLUME OF THE TEXT