farfel_n02_159_127

127
Feb. '82
J.S. Edgren, Carmel
$20

Shiki
Shih-chi (Historical Annals - Chinese history) by Ssu-ma - 145-86BC
the Herodotus of China. Ch'ien of the Han period (206BC-AD220)
Japanese edition printed with wooden movable Types
with 1615 1 folio. Typographic ed.
Format: 8 columns of 17 characters
Border: double, 23.5x18.2 cm.
(-added reading marks in red)
Most of the printing in Japan up to the end of the Muramachi
period (1333-1573) was concerned with Buddhism + the method
used was xylography. After Hideyoshi's campaign in Korea,
types + printing equipment which had actively been
used there entered Japan were on the model of the
imported ones, but were made of wood. Many individuals
+ institutions supported the new printing - temples, priests,
artists, + other notables. Books published duing this
(c.1590-1650) period are known as ko-katsiyi editions. All genuine
specimens of ko-katsiyi books are conoummate
examples of Japanese book art, + were prited during
the Bunnrokw (1592-1596) Keicho (1596-1615), Gunne
(1615-1624), + Kan'ei (1624-1644) periods. For
unknown reasons this flourishing printing activity was
abruptly discontinued about 1647, + woodblock printed
books became preferred again. Thus ended the age of
"incunabula" in Japan

The period of moveable ytpe supremacy lasted only from 1600 to 1640, althought
it was introduced earlier + continued in diminishing use until about 1650.
THe advent of moveable type was probably the most significant single
occurance in the development of printing up until then. The signifigance
lay not so much in the techonlogy of moveable type, which ultimately
proved less advantagous to the Japanese than the traditional wood block
method, but in the variet of uses ro whcih it was put. By 1650,