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2003 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

A socio-political study of the dissemination of the polite knowledge printed in household encyclopedias in nineteenth century Japan

Research Project

Project/Area Number 14520095
Research Category

Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)

Allocation TypeSingle-year Grants
Section一般
Research Field Politics
Research InstitutionKYOTO UNIVERSITY

Principal Investigator

YOKOYAMA Toshio  KYOTO UNIVERSITY, Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies, Professor, 地球環境学堂, 教授 (40027553)

Project Period (FY) 2002 – 2003
Keywordsnineteenth century Japan / civilization / civility / household encyclopedia / setsuyoshu / ozassho / usage of books / courtly elegance
Research Abstract

The focus of this study has been the bulky editions of setsuyoshu and ozassho, the household encyclopedias of nineteenth century Japan. A comprehensive analysis of these texts has made clear that the polite knowledge printed in them covered a broad range of 'civility', including even that towards non-humans. Some hundred copies kept in public and private archives were bibliographically clarified, and an examination conducted into the mode of wear and tear of each copy. A discussion of the diversity of the usage of the books followed their initial examination. While prior research has enabled Yokoyama Toshio to complete a computer-graphic analysis of the wear and tear on the bottom surface of about 60 surviving copies of setsuyoshu, the current study has given him a chance to review that digitizing method. In addition, this study has enabled the researcher to grasp the active intermediary roles that setsuyoshu and ozassho played in disseminating polite knowledge nationwide, being, on the one hand, supported by the users' growing interest in an ideal of courtly elegance, and on the other, modified by their desire to avoid any competitive snobbery. A pantheistic belief in the Five-Elements school of astrology and geomancy stands out among the traces of court culture depicted in setsuyoshu and ozassho. The enormous flexibility as well as strength of this belief is evidenced in the wear and tear of the relevant pages of the copies examined. Such a discovery urges scholars to evaluate this forgotten genre of literature as one of the significant civilizing elements of nineteenth century Japanese society.

  • Research Products

    (6 results)

All Other

All Publications (6 results)

  • [Publications] YOKOYAMA, Toshio: "Civilising the Usage of the Word, Givilisation"Occasional Seminar Paper of the Institute for Research in Humanities.Kyoto University. No.7. 87-99 (2002)

    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(和文)」より
  • [Publications] 横山 俊夫: "久米島具志川間切の日選び"久米島西銘誌. 単行本. 820-835 (2003)

    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(和文)」より
  • [Publications] 横山 俊夫: "節用の日本文明(連載/其の一〜其の二十)"ひととき. 2・8〜4・3. 57-57, 59- 59, 61-61 (2002-2004)

    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(和文)」より
  • [Publications] YOKOYAMA, Toshio: "Civilising the Usage of the Word, Civilisation. (in English)"Occasional Seminar Paper of the Institute for Research in Humanities, Kyoto University. No.7. 87-99 (2002)

    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(欧文)」より
  • [Publications] YOKOYAMA, Toshio: "Data-divining in Premodern Gushikawa, Kumejima. (Japanese)"Kumejima Nishime Shi (The History of Nishime Village in Kumejim). Single Volume. 820-835 (2003)

    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(欧文)」より
  • [Publications] YOKOYAMA, Toshio: "Japanese civilization during the centuries when setsuyoshu flourished. (in Japanese)"Hitotoki(One Moment), Vol.2,No.8-Vol.4,No.3. One-page consecutie series in 20 installments. 57,59,61 (2002-2004)

    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(欧文)」より

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Published: 2005-04-19  

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