Introduction

Welcome to the course “Japanese Culture through Rare Books”! Before we begin, read the article below about the first week, the organizing team, and some notes that might be helpful as you proceed in this course. Then watch the conversation between Prof. Sasaki and Prof. Ichinohe from the booksellers of Jimbocho, Tokyo’s book town. A lot of old and rare books are still on the market in Japan.

First week

In the first week of the course, we will talk about binding methods and the special position of the scroll among them.

One of the defining characteristics of Japanese books is their great variety of appearance. The main bookbinding methods were imported from China, but over time Japanese bookmaking took on distinctive characteristics. Different binding methods came to be used for different purposes. In this week, we will explore traditional binding styles and their uses, and also look at the practice of rebinding.

Organizing team

This course will be lead by Professor Takahiro Sasaki and Professor Wataru Ichinohe both at Keio Institute of Oriental Classics. Prof. Sasaki specializes in bibliography and Japanese literature in the medieval period with a particular focus on waka. Prof. Ichinohe also specializes in bibliography and Japanese literature of the Edo period.

Japanese contents have been translated and edited by Dr. Gian-Piero Persiani, a specialist of Heian literature. The course has been produced by the Research Institute for Digital Media and Content and the Global Education Project at the Graduate School of Media Design of Keio University.

^{From the left: Takahiro Sasaki, Wataru Ichinohe, and Gian-Piero Persiani.}

Motoki Yasui from Keio University Press, Goki Miyakita and Professor Keiko Okawa from the Graduate School of Media Design, will assist you during the course!

Follow the team to read their responses to learners throughout the course.

Important notes

• All videos have English and Japanese subtitles. You can choose one of those by clicking the bubble mark at the right cover of the video.
• All steps have English and Japanese text of articles and video scripts which you can find as PDFs under the “DOWNLOADS” section at the bottom of the first step of each week.
• All historical figure’s names follow the Japanese convention (family name first and then given name, ex. Tokugawa Ieyasu)
• Sometimes ō and ū will appear with a straight bar above the letters (i.e., macron or diacritical mark) . This represents long vowels, for example, ō for “oo” or “oh.”
• All book titles and Japanese keywords will be italicized.
• You can view the images that are used in the articles and part of the videos in larger size by clicking the links marked Click to take a closer look.
• Some words and names that may be unfamiliar to learners are listed in the glossary located in Step 1.4.
• Names of the historical periods is listed in Step 1.5.
• When you complete each step, select the Mark as complete button before selecting the arrow to move on.

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You can now get extra benefits by upgrading this course, including:

Unlimited access to the course: Go at your own pace with unlimited access to the course for as long as it exists on FutureLearn.

A Certificate of Achievement or Statement of Participation: To help you demonstrate your learning we’ll send you a Certificate of Achievement or Statement of Participation when you become eligible.

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