| Budget Amount *help |
¥3,400,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,400,000)
Fiscal Year 2004: ¥1,300,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,300,000)
Fiscal Year 2003: ¥2,100,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,100,000)
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| Research Abstract |
Quantitative analyses of the Early Christian documents (late 16^<th> -early 17^<th> centuries, Japan) have been enabled by the comprehensive database of the Early Christian documents, developed by the Head Investigator.
By the aid of this rudimental database, investigations have been conducted on the usage of KANJI's in the Early Christian documents, especially focusing on how they are composed into a printing page, based on the minute observations of the extant copies of the Early Christian press.
Imposition, the printing technique to place multiple pages into one sheet to get a quarto (4), octavo (8), or dvodecimo (12), and other foliations, was (and still is) quite common in western prints. This research project has attested, for the first time, that the Early Christian documents used this imposition method not only for those printed with Latin characters, but also for those printed with KANJI's. This testifies that the basic printing method was exactly the same in the Japanese prints as in the western prints, in the Early Christian Era. The research project has also discovered that, there exist examples of the imposition method in the Early woodcut movable type prints (KO-KATSUJI-HAN), which were NOT printed by the Christian Mission. This remarkable fact reveals that the Japanese Early woodcut movable type prints have been greatly influenced by the Early Christian press. : the Japanese Early woodcut movable type prints may have been direct offspring of the western movable type printings.
The rudimental database have been enlarged with the KO-KATSUJI-HAN data, enabling quantitative studies on the Kanji usage, as well as reduplication marks, diacritical marks, etc. in western and Japanese style prints. Basic comparisons of the Kanji usage are given in the research report (in Japanese).
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