Moveable Type in Japan and the World

This chapter situates the relatively brief use of moveable type in Japan in the 1590s–1640s within both East Asian and European histories of printing. Typography had long existed in China and Korea, yet it reached Japan only after Hideyoshi&s;s invasions of Korea and the Jesuit mission&s;s introduction of a European press. Kornicki examines how these distinct traditions were received, why typography was eventually abandoned, and how woodblock printing and manuscript culture flourished in its place. Far from an isolated case, Japan&s;s experience exemplifies global patterns in which printing technologies circulated widely, yet coexisted with—and were often shaped by—scribal practices.