A Study of Pararellism in Book Culture in Early Modern Japan and Britain

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K21631
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Exploratory)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Medium-sized Section 2:Literature, linguistics, and related fields
• Research Institution: Yamanashi Prefectural University
• Principal Investigator: Takano Michiyo 山梨県立大学, 国際政策学部, 准教授 (10289811)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-06-28 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: 書物史 / Richard Chiswell / 日英比較研究 / prison literature / conduct book

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The purpose of this study was to specifically identify the curious similarities between the book cultures of Japan and England in the early modern period,despite the geographical distance between the two countries.To illustrate,since commercial publishing began to flourish in the 17th century and the activities of major book merchants became prominent in both countries,I have compared the publishing activities of Hachimonjiya in Kyoto and Richard Chiswell in London, and have focused on the way they devised methods to attract customers. Book reading and book collecting by individuals have also been examined,in an attempt to prove that there is a kind of parallelism between early modern Japanese and English book culture. .

Free Research Field

英文学、英国文化、書物史

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究課題においては、これまで明らかにされてこなかった17世紀を中心とする近世日英書物文化の並行現象について考究し、その成果を発表・発信することを試みた。また、海外の研究者や、稀覯本を専門に扱う国内外の書籍商等より助言を得ながら、幅広い視点から課題に取り組み、書物の制作・流通、書物の受容、読書文化の広まりなど、英文学研究において作品のテクスト解釈以外を研究対象とすることの可能性を提示することができた。さらに、国際的な研究交流を通して、日英書物史比較研究が海外研究者からも関心を持たれるものであると認識し、継続して考究を深める価値があることを確信した。