2002 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
A Study of the Process of the Realization of types of the Direction of Writing in Japanese
| Project/Area Number |
13610490
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
国語学
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| Research Institution | Tokyo Woman's Christian University |
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Principal Investigator |
YANAIKE Makoto Tokyo Woman's Christian University, College of Culture and Communication, Professor, 現代文化学部, 教授 (00182361)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2001 – 2002
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| Keywords | direction of writing / direction of script / vertical writing / horizontal writing / left-to-right horizontal writing / left-to-right line shifting / portraits / picture scrolls |
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| Research Abstract |
1.This paper first demonstrates that a printing firm called Kurataya in early Meiji era played a major role in the birth of the left-to-right horizontal writings of Japanese. Through the introduction of letterpress techniques, this firm connected with western mission printing firms in China. Oriental languages in the Chinese language books written by missionaries from the west were written horizontally from left to right, in accordance with the western way of writing. It is possible that this writing system gave an impetus to the start of the left-to-right horizontal writings of Japanese.
2.It then points out that poems and sentences often seen in the portraits of the pre-modern era were written in the same direction that those portraits were facing. This type of direction in writing did not come from China but was born in the medieval era in Japan.
3.Finally this paper discusses the significance of the existence of writing directions and their influence, especially on the structure of picture scrolls.
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