Comparative Study on Very Similar Jeungdoga Scripts through Image Analysis - Fundamental Difference between Treasure No. 758-1 and Treasure No. 758-2 -

Photographic images of the Samseong-version (三省本: Korea’s Treasure No. 758-1) and the Gongin-version (空印本: Korea’s Treasure No. 758-2) of Nammyeongcheon Hwasangsong Jeungdoga (南明泉和尙頌證道歌: Nanmingquan Song Zhengdaoge) were compared and analyzed to investigate the differences between the two versions. According to a report in 2012 at the time of the designation of the Gongin-version as Korea’s treasure, both versions were printed from the same woodblocks. The Gongin-version is presumed to be a later print than the Samseong-version. The two versions are very similar in format and shape of border lines and characters. It is difficult to determine the differences with the naked eye, even for experts. In this study, based on the printing characteristics observed from each version through image analysis, useful evidence to determine whether it was printed using the same or different woodblocks and the order of printing was collected. As a result of careful image comparison and analysis, we concluded that the Samseong- and the Gongin-version were printed from different woodblocks, or possibly different typesetting. It was difficult to agree with the content of the report that the Gongin-version was a later print than the Samseong-version. In addition, it was noted that the Gongin-version print has characteristics quite different from the typical characteristics of woodblock printing seen in the Samseong-version. Additional investigations and follow-up studies on the printing technology used for Gongin-version print and the timing of printing are recommended.

Chronological Evolution of the Urashima Taro Story and its Interpretation

<p>The present thesis examines the evolution of the Urashima story. In modern Japan traditional Japanese tales have been presented in the form of illustrated books for young children. It is generally regarded that these tales contain common motifs or moral lessons; however, the Urashima story, one of the most well-known stories in Japan, seems to differ greatly from other folktales. Scholars believe that the Urashima story was a popular pre-written orality-based story among the coastal dwelling ama group of people in ancient times in Japan. The introduction of a writing system from China made it possible to record the Urashima story as a written text. However, the first recorded version of the Urashima story, putatively in the late seventh century, was quite different from later versions in terms of plot, purpose and the characters. The ideology of immortality, suggesting Chinese Daoist origins, was the main purpose of the story for several centuries, overlain by Buddhist influences. The present study finds that the major turning point in the tale from an orality-based story to a literary text was in Otogizōshi in the Muromachi Period (14th–16th centuries), when people still seemed to be attuned to orality-based puns and the satirical and witty use of word plays through the exchange of songs. During the ensuing Edo Period, the Urashima story was transformed into a book for reading material. It changed at this time due to social developments, such as the widespread manufacture of paper and the technological development of woodblock printing. A shift in its themes and motifs such as immortality to Buddhist and social moral lessons occurred along with changing the cultural values of society, increase in literacy, and the appearance of new genres of literature and their writers in the Edo Period. The establishment of the formal compulsory education system in the Meiji Period, accompanied by a shift in readership from educated adults to school children, further changed the story and its purpose, and resulted in the standardisation of the Urashima Tarō story that is well known today. Much of the well-known content of the current Urashima story in modern day Japan has appeared only within the last 150 years. Therefore, from this thesis it is apparent that the Urashima story evolved as a reflection of Japanese society’s changing views. In short, this study identifies and analyses significant changes to the original recorded story that have appeared over the past fourteen hundred years.</p>

Chronological Evolution of the Urashima Taro Story and its Interpretation

<p>The present thesis examines the evolution of the Urashima story. In modern Japan traditional Japanese tales have been presented in the form of illustrated books for young children. It is generally regarded that these tales contain common motifs or moral lessons; however, the Urashima story, one of the most well-known stories in Japan, seems to differ greatly from other folktales. Scholars believe that the Urashima story was a popular pre-written orality-based story among the coastal dwelling ama group of people in ancient times in Japan. The introduction of a writing system from China made it possible to record the Urashima story as a written text. However, the first recorded version of the Urashima story, putatively in the late seventh century, was quite different from later versions in terms of plot, purpose and the characters. The ideology of immortality, suggesting Chinese Daoist origins, was the main purpose of the story for several centuries, overlain by Buddhist influences. The present study finds that the major turning point in the tale from an orality-based story to a literary text was in Otogizōshi in the Muromachi Period (14th–16th centuries), when people still seemed to be attuned to orality-based puns and the satirical and witty use of word plays through the exchange of songs. During the ensuing Edo Period, the Urashima story was transformed into a book for reading material. It changed at this time due to social developments, such as the widespread manufacture of paper and the technological development of woodblock printing. A shift in its themes and motifs such as immortality to Buddhist and social moral lessons occurred along with changing the cultural values of society, increase in literacy, and the appearance of new genres of literature and their writers in the Edo Period. The establishment of the formal compulsory education system in the Meiji Period, accompanied by a shift in readership from educated adults to school children, further changed the story and its purpose, and resulted in the standardisation of the Urashima Tarō story that is well known today. Much of the well-known content of the current Urashima story in modern day Japan has appeared only within the last 150 years. Therefore, from this thesis it is apparent that the Urashima story evolved as a reflection of Japanese society’s changing views. In short, this study identifies and analyses significant changes to the original recorded story that have appeared over the past fourteen hundred years.</p>

An Experimental Reproduction Study on Characteristics of Woodblock Printing on Traditional Korean Paper (Hanji)

The history of printing technology in Korea is studied by investigating existing ancient documents and records and comparing accumulated data and knowledge. Cultural property research requires non-destructive testing and observation with the naked eye or aided by a microscope. Researchers’ experience and knowledge are required even though they cannot guarantee the outcome. For ancient documents and records that are presumed to consist of woodblock printing, wood type printing, metal type printing, or their combinations, each researcher draws various opinions and conclusions. This often causes confusion and divides the opinions of ordinary citizens and field specialists. Among them, the criteria for judging ancient documents or books printed using woodblock and metal movable material are ambiguous. Academic research on the development history of printing technology in ancient Korea has been stagnant, and conflicts among researchers have also erupted. Involvement of national investigative agencies not specialized in cultural properties has exacerbated the situation. In this study, we investigated printing characteristics that are likely to serve as more objective judgment criteria by quantitatively analyzing the experiments of retrieving several sheets of Korean paper (Hanji) using a replicated Hunminjeongeum (訓民正音) woodblock and quantitatively analyzing the images of the printed papers. In addition, the validity and questions for the typical phenomena presented as a method for distinguishing between woodblock and metal print are reviewed. We investigated the possibility of developing new objective judgement criteria through quantitative analysis using image analysis and investigating the printing characteristics of Korean paper through a reproduction experiment of woodblock printing.

The Hanoi Reprint of the Precious Scroll of Incense Mountain (1772) and the Printing of Buddhist Works in Northern Vietnam at the End of the Eighteenth Century

The Precious Scroll of Incense Mountain is a popular Buddhist narrative in prosimetric form that was transmitted to Vietnam from China and reprinted in Hanoi with imperial sanction in 1772. The historical background of the Hanoi reprint demonstrates that this text had much higher status in Vietnam than in China. In Vietnam it was regarded as an authoritative Buddhist scripture. The case of the reprint of the Precious Scroll of Incense Mountain reveals the role of Buddhist monasteries as centers of woodblock printing in Vietnam, which still remains understudied in current research. The growth of printing of Buddhist works, which enjoyed the support of the court and officials in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, testifies to the popularity of Buddhism among the ruling elite during the Later Lê dynasty, when Confucianism was proclaimed the official ideology of the state.

Female Images in Chinese and Japanese painting

This article analyzes female images in Chinese and Japanese painting (Bijin-ga). The subject of this research is the depiction of Chinese beautiful women on the scrolls of the X &ndash; XVII centuries and Japanese woodblock printing of the XVII &ndash; XIX centuries. Attention is given to the works of modern artists. It is noted that the aesthetic ideals are oriented towards the perception of beauty in the context of national culture of China and Japan, which undergo changes in each era, nurtured by Buddhism, Shintoism, Taoism and Confucianism, which contributed to the development of female image and symbolic sound. The fact that the worldview orientation towards women and their status in the Far Eastern society faded away defines the relevance of the selected topic. The novelty of lies in the comparative analysis of philosophical-aesthetic traditions of Chinese and Japanese painting, reflected in female images in the historical development, with the emphasis on its modern development. The conclusion is made that the assessment of female image in Chinese and Japanese art requires taking into account the national mentality, spiritual traditions, and interinfluence of cultures. The perception of the changing image of women in society plays a special role. It is determined that the depiction of women in clothes and face paint that conceals their body shape and facial emotions, deprive a woman of her individuality and lower her social status. Such trend remains in the contemporary art of these countries. Up until now, female images resemble the symbolism of depiction, closeness to nature, interweaving of external and internal content substantiated by the aesthetic, ethical and philosophical saturation of painting, indicating the uniqueness of each culture and its national heritage.

Printing Tibetan Epistolaria: A Bibliographical Analysis of Epistolary Transformations from Manuscript to Xylograph

In Tibetan tradition, letter writing is a sophisticated art in which the material aspects of a letter––paper format, script style and size, text spacing and layout––are integral to the letter's semantic content. What meaning is lost and gained in the transformation from manuscript original to printed edition? What scribal and editorial decisions are at play in this textual transformation? My aims in this article are twofold: to introduce scholars of global epistolary literatures to the Tibetan epistolary tradition, and to examine the ways in which editing and printing epistolaria can thoroughly transform letters’ materiality and meaning. This study not only contributes a bibliographical analysis of printed Tibetan epistolaria, but also offers a model for investigating how woodblock printing or other printing technologies can change the way epistolary texts both look and function.