The role of immigrant printers


Click to take a closer look and poetry collections by contemporary poets. For example, the Tenryūji temple in the Saga area of Kyoto published the poetry collection of the Yuan-dynasty poet Fan Peng (J. Han Ho, 1272-1330). Another temple printed the Huang Yuan fengya, an anthology of contemporary Chinese poetry [fig. 3]. This process of secularization may have been further accelerated by the arrival in 1367, at the invitation of Japanese monks, of a group of master carvers from the Chinese city of Fuzhou.

Click to take a closer look Printing blocks were made by professional “carvers” (called kokukō in Japanese). Contemporary records bear the names of eight master carvers who arrived in Japan in the 6th year of Jōji (1367) and settled in the Saga area. Names such as Chen Bashou (J. Chin Hakujū) and Yu Liangfu (J. Yu Ryōho) appear frequently in Gozan-ban editions published after this date [fig. 4] [fig. 5]. In China, where printing was far more widespread, books usually bore names of the carvers who had been involved in their making, which, among other things, made it easier to determine the wages for each carver. Thus, immigrant craftsmen from China made a vital contribution to the publishing activities of the Tenryūji, the Rinsenji, and other Zen temples of the Saga area.

Click to take a closer look


Click to take a closer look The pioneering work of these immigrant printers paved the way for the boom of commercial publishing in the early-modern period (1603-1868). “Five-Mountain culture” (Gozan bunka) is credited with introducing or popularizing in Japan a wide variety of continental objects and cultural practices, from foods like tea, miso paste, soy sauce, and filled buns, to architectural styles, room designs, garden designs, ink painting, and flower arrangement. However, as we have seen, its contribution to the evolution of Japanese printing and book culture was no less significant.
Sino-Japanese Interactions Through Rare Books

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