Paper short abstract:

In pre-Meiji Japan, the physical format of books was selected according to their content. In my presentation I will focus on thirteenth- and fourteenth-century manuscripts and fragments (kohitsugire), exploring the relationship between the genre and book format in monogatari literature.

Paper long abstract:

In pre-Meiji Japan, the content and reasons underlying the production of books were often key factors which guided the selection of their physical aspect. Traditional Japanese book formats—kansubon, orihon, detchoso, tetchōso, fukurotoji—were in fact used differently depending on the literary work contained therein. As a rule of thumb, there are differences between poetry and prose texts, and even within prose we can recognise that an array of book formats were used according to different genres of monogatari. By looking at book formats vis-à-vis their content, it is possible to study how different genres were divided and understood at the moment of the production of the book.

In my presentation I will focus on thirteenth- and fourteenth-century manuscripts and fragments (kohitsugire) which were characterized by an evident relationship between physical format and content: uta-monogatari (e.g. Ise monogatari and Yamato monogatari), tsukuri-monogatari (e.g. Genji monogatari or Sagoromo), and rekishi-monogatari (e.g. Ōkagami and Eiga monogatari). First I am going to present an overview of various book formats, explaining which genre they were typically used in connections with. Then, I will consider some notable exceptions, explaining their significance and the reasons for which they were treated differently. In this way, I plan to demonstrate the usefulness of a research approach based on the study of book formats.