This study deals with all aspects of the history of the book in Japan, from the production of manuscripts and printed books to book-collecting, libraries, censorship and readership. It also sets books in the context of Japan's cultural ties with China, Korea and Parhae.
The focus is on the history of both texts and physical books. This encompasses not only books in Japanese but also books in Chinese by Chinese and Korean authors, and some Western books as well.
It is an essential reference tool and bibliographic guide for all those interested in book studies, and particularly of...

The history of the book in East Asia is closely linked to problems of language and script, problems which have also had a profound impact on the technology of printing and on the social and intellectual impact of print in this area. This volume contains key readings on the history of printed books and manuscripts in China, Korea and Japan and includes an introduction which provides an overview of the history of the book in East Asia and sets the readings in their context.

This series on the history of the book in the East focuses attention on three areas of the world which for a long time have been undeservedly left on the margins of the global history of the book: the Middle East, South Asia and East Asia. The importance of these three regions of the world lies not only in the sheer antiquity of printing in East Asia, where both movable type and wood blocks were used centuries before Gutenberg's invention changed the face of book production in Europe, but also in the manuscript traditions and very different responses to printing technology in the Middle East...