Searching for the source of the letter culture

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24520749
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Japanese history
• Research Institution: Nara Women's University
• Principal Investigator: Kuroda Yohko 奈良女子大学, 古代学学術研究センター, 協力研究員 (70566322)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: 奈良時代 / 正倉院文書 / 書状 / 啓 / 王羲之書法廿巻 / 草書体 / 古代史 / 日本史

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This is the study of searching for source of Japanese ancient letters. There are a lot of letters which were written with document form called Kei(啓）in Shosoin documents. They are categorized as a document that is submitted to their superior(上申文書). There are three elements in them, ①words, ②forms, and ③handwritings. First, letters include words of expression for respect and request, and those words are not included in the public documents. So letters are different from public documents. Second, Kei(啓）had a same faculty as document form Hyo(表), so Kei(啓）is the document form that they chose when they had something requests, and Kei(啓）appeared in the end of later Han Period. Third, public documents were written by block letters(楷書), but letters were written by handwritings. And document form and writings came into existence at the same time, deeply relating with each other. In conclusion, Kei(啓)or letters are fundamentally different from public documents.

Free Research Field

日本古代史料学