Books in the Edo period

The theme in Week 3 is “Book Publishing and Scholarship in Early-modern Japan”. Our educator will be Professor Wataru Ichinohe, a specialist of Edo-period publishing and literary culture.

In this video, you will learn some interesting things about the cultural background of the Edo period, from looking at this Ukiyoe print.

Please take a look at this Ukiyoe (Fig. 1) and think about what it shows before looking at the video to find out more.

^{Fig 1. Rikōmono (The Clever One) Kyōkun oya no megane (A Parent’s Edifying Spectacles) by Kitagawa Utamaro Click to take a closer look}

Era names (Nengō) in Edo Period

There were several era names (nengo, or gengo) in Edo period (1603 ~ 1867) and they are sometimes used in the description of the old books and materials. Here is the list of the era names in Edo period for your convenience;

Week 3 materials

You can download PDF version of the text and transcript of Week 3, in English and Japanese at the DOWNLOADS section below.