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Printing and Publishing (view source)
Revision as of 19:49, 6 December 2014
, 19:49, 6 December 2014no edit summary
==History==
==History==
===Pre-Modern Printing===
===Pre-Modern Printing===
[[File:Hyakumanto.JPG|right|thumb|300px|One of the miniature ''[[hyakumanto darani|hyakumantô darani]]'' pagodas, on display at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art]]
Throughout the pre-modern period, up until the late 16th century, printed materials in Japan were largely Buddhist texts, and were almost exclusively produced or sponsored by Buddhist temples, Shinto shrines, court nobles, the Imperial Court, or samurai elites. The vast majority of these, it is believed, were not produced to be read, but rather were produced as religious offerings. The donor or patron gained religious merit through commissioning and funding the production of the work, and from then donating it to a temple; the work, stored away inside a temple's storehouse or otherwise buried or hidden away, would then go unread.<ref>Keyes, 11.</ref>
Throughout the pre-modern period, up until the late 16th century, printed materials in Japan were largely Buddhist texts, and were almost exclusively produced or sponsored by Buddhist temples, Shinto shrines, court nobles, the Imperial Court, or samurai elites. The vast majority of these, it is believed, were not produced to be read, but rather were produced as religious offerings. The donor or patron gained religious merit through commissioning and funding the production of the work, and from then donating it to a temple; the work, stored away inside a temple's storehouse or otherwise buried or hidden away, would then go unread.<ref>Keyes, 11.</ref>