[On the text of Ihon Yamai-no-Soshi]

There are about fifteen variant texts of Yamai-no-Soshi (Ihon Yamai-no-Soshi), which is considered to have been originally compiled in the late Heian period (latter half of the twelfth century). However, few discussions have ever addressed the work's bibliography, formation or text in detail. In this study, the formation and text critique of Ihon Yamai-no-Soshi are considered. It is found that the variant texts can be divided into two categories, short and long, the former describing mainly the ten-kyo cases typical of ancient Japan before the Kamakura period, and the latter including the atypical and vulgar cases of the Edo period which were added later. For part of the texts, the corresponding source texts were found through the bibliographic research. This study highlights the value of Ihon Yamai-no-Soshi as a reference text for the historical study of psychiatry.