Skip to 0 minutes and 11 seconds Both Europe and Japan have a long history of books, going back more than one thousand years. They evolved independently of each other, but their paths crossed in the 16th century through the Jesuit missionaries who brought not only books but also the printing press itself to Japan. Can you imagine the impact of this cultural and technological encounter? Since this first encounter, books traveled far and wide in both directions, so far and wide, in fact, that Keio University now has a copy of the Gutenberg Bible while the British Library has the unique copy of one of the first book printed with an European printing press in Japan.
Skip to 1 minute and 11 seconds I am Takami Matsuda, the lead educator of the 3-week course that will explore how books travelled in both space and time, to different cultures and to different ages. You will travel with books and see how they bridged the East and the West, and brought the past into our hands. You will also receive an introduction to the comparative study of some of the early printed books in Japan and Europe. How similar or different are the European-type books printed in Japan in the 16th-century from their European counterparts? What traces can we find in the old books that can tell you about past readers and collectors?
Skip to 2 minutes and 11 seconds What are the physical features of the travel books that make them easy to carry on a journey? Finally, in travel fiction, how do illustrations help us imagine the places that we have never been to or can only visit in fantasy? To look for answers to such questions, specialists from Keio University and the British Library join together and collaborate, sharing with learners the experience of actually comparing features of historical books from Europe and Japan, using rare books from both institutions. You will receive a first-hand experience of the encounter with foreign books and through it a foreign culture in the way only books can realize. Please join us and see you at the course.
