“Precious notes on papermaking” (“Kamisuki chohoki”): graphic features of the text

The paper deals with the graphic features of the text of “Precious Notes on Papermaking” (“Kamisuki Chohoki”) edition, a typical representative of a printed book of popular literature, published in the Edo period for a general reader. The article analyzes the collocation of the text and illustrations: the graphical arrangement of the text (including its division into semantic parts and principles of its distribution on the page) differs depending on whether or not the page contains illustrations. The paper also focuses the hentaigana signs used in “Kamisuki Chohoki”, their forms and tendencies of usage. Number of occurrences of different hentaigana characters in the text have been calculated, and the results show that it is possible to distinguish one predominant character (i.e. the form of hentaigana sign that occurs in the text much more frequently than other characters) for the vast majority of kana syllables. Moreover, the text uses only two variants of hentaigana signs for most syllables (19 altogether); 13 syllables have no variation, while 10 syllables have three variants, four and five versions are attested for only 2 syllables. This means that the variability of the signs used in the text is rather low, although it still exists and seems to be important. An attempt has been made to trace the patterns the text creator could have used for selecting certain characters. Of course, no strict rules can be derived, and yet for certain signs tendencies can be traced. Most of these tendencies seem to be related to aesthetic considerations, such as graphic compatibility of signs. The research shows a clear tendency for the writing to be simplified, but the fact that it didn’t achieve full standardization suggests that variability was considered to be an example of good taste. We believe that the creator of the text of “Kamisuki Chohoki” pursued two opposite tasks: on the one hand, he wanted the text to be simple enough to be read by not so highly educated reader; on the other hand, the importance of aesthetic principles forced him to keep strictly to the established rules for manuscripts (such as variability and graphic compatibility of signs). All the above mentioned features emphasize the importance of the aesthetic component for the Edo era Japanese printed book.

хэнтайгана, кудзусидзи, «Камисуки тёхоки», «Полезные записи об изготовлении бумаги», период Эдо (1603-1867), hentaigana, kuzushiji, “Kamisuki Chohoki”, “Precious Notes on Papermaking”, Edo period (1603-1867)

1. Горегляд В.Н. Рукописная книга в культуре Японии // Рукописная книга в культуре народов Востока (очерки). Книга вторая. М.: Наука, 1988. С. 223-270.

2. Гривнин В.С. Начало книгопечатания в Японии // Китай, Япония. История. Филология. М.: Восточная литература, 1961.

3. Завадская Е.В. Японское искусство книги. VII-XIX века. М.: РИП-Холдинг, 2014. 228 с.

4. Кавасэ Кадзума. Нихон сёсигаку но кэнкю : [История книжного дела в Японии]. Токио: Коданся, 1971.

5. Кунисаки Дзихэ. Камисуки тёхоки : [Полезные записи об изготовлении бумаги]. Осака: Акита Тауэмон, 1824. URL: http://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/2537086 (дата обращения: 24.06.2018).

6. Окада Кадзухиро. Эдоки-но ироха кана : [Азбука «ироха» эпохи Эдо] // Кокуго кокубун кэнкю. Вып. 142. Хоккайдо: Хоккайдо дайгаку кокуго кокубун гаккай, 2013. С. 33-43.

7. Kornicki Peter. The Book in Japan: A Cultural History from the Beginnings to the Nineteenth Century. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2016.