我が国現存最古と思われる眼鏡に就いて

The "possibly" oldest spectacles introduced into Japan.

　1．

　私が京都紫野に大徳寺大仙院を訪ねたのは，昭和36年11月12日晩秋の夕暮どきであつた。

　折しも，この洛北第一と称する禅寺の大伽藍は，夕もやの中に静かにその古姿を消そうとするときであつた。

From the known histolical materials, One can realize that one who first introduced spectacles into Japan was a spanish missio-nary, namely, St. Francis Xavier (1506-1552). More precisely, it had been written in Biog-raphy of Yoshitaka Ouchi that when Xavier met with the Lord of Yamaguchi Castle in theninteenth year of Tenmon (1550), he pre-sented a pair of eye glasses for presbyopia to the Lord.

Until it was proved recently that an old-fashioned eye glasses was well-presenced in the buddhist temples, Daisenin, Daitokuji in Kyoto, this glasses had never been found any where.