The authors were the scholars So Senshun, Shirao Kunihashira from the Japanese national Kokugaku school, the Confucian Mukai Tomoaki and Hori Monjuro, who studied Dutch and other Western knowledge in the context of Rangaku.
[6] His goal was to print and distribute the book within his domain, promote agriculture and medicine, and make the rulers aware of the needs of the people.
However, in 1806, the Satsuma domain’s residence in Shiba, Edo, where the encyclopedia was being compiled, caught fire, and although the woodblocks were safe, the project came to a standstill.
[4] This, combined with the domain's financial difficulties and political strife,[7] led to the project’s dissolution with only the first 30 volumes completed.
[4] Sō Senshun continued the compilation in Edo alone, but in 1829, another fire destroyed the woodblocks and manuscripts of volumes 31 to 40.
[6][7] Leiden University has a colored copy given to Philipp Franz von Siebold by Katsuragawa Hoken (桂川甫賢).