Course: Japanese Culture Through Rare Books

Hand-colored printed books represent an interesting amalgam of handwritten and printed illustrated books. This book (Fig.1) was printed using wooden movable type and features bordered color plates. Fig.1. Iwaya no …

An important difference between printed and handwritten illustrated books is that illustrations in printed books often feature a border or frame whereas illustrations in handwritten books do not. First, read …

Printed illustrated books appeared not too long after their handwritten counterparts, about which you learned in Week 2. You are also already familiar with the history of printed books in …

Thank you very much for joining us for the past three weeks. Please watch the video for a brief wrap-up by professors Sasaki and Ichinohe from the quiet comfort of …

Starting in the mid-18th century, a large quantity of previously unpublished works were published and made available to a wide audience. In this video, Prof. Ichinohe introduces the publishing activity …

Books come in two main types: handwritten books (shahon in Japanese) and printed books (kanpon). In this video, we will explore how the spread of printing affected the relationship between …

Early-modern books come in standard formats and to some extent it is possible to tell the content of the book from its size, although there are exceptions. In this step, …

In this video, we will focus on the age of movable-type printing (late 16th to mid-17th century). Please watch the video to learn about the following topics about movable-type printing; …

In this video, we will look at the history of printing and bookmaking in the medieval period (late 12th to late 16th c.). Printing and publishing between the eighth and …

In this video, Professor Ichinohe will guide us through the early history of printing and bookmaking (700-1200 C.E.). Topics covered include: The oldest printed texts The spread of printed works …

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 …