Printing technologies and book production in seventeenth-century Japan / Peter Kornicki.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kornicki, Peter F. (Peter Francis), author.

Series:

Cambridge elements. Elements in publishing and book culture, 2514-8524.

Cambridge elements. Elements in publishing and book culture, 2514-8524

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Printing--Japan--History--17th century.

Printing.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (89 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2025.

Summary:

This Element first sets the history of printing in Japan in its East Asian context, showing how developments in China, Korea and elsewhere had an impact upon Japan. It then undertakes a re-examination of printing in seventeenth-century Japan and in particular explores the reasons why Japanese printers abandoned typography less than fifty years after it was introduced. This is a question that has often been posed but never satisfactorily answered, but this Element takes a new approach, focusing on two popular medical texts that were first printed typographically and then xylographically. The argument presented here is that the glosses relied upon by Japanese readers could be much more easily be provided when printing xylographically: since from the early seventeenth century onwards printed books customarily included glosses for the convenience of readers, this was surely the reason for the abandonment of typography.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 10 Jan 2025).

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

9781009495509

100949550X

9781009495530

1009495534

9781009495493

1009495496