Pictopedia of Everyday Life in Medieval Japan

[Ki no Kotori]

Just stumbled on a nice resource. Kanagawa University is/was running a group that was translating "Pictopedia of Everyday Life in Medieval Japan as Compiled from Picture Scrolls" from the original work edited by Shibusawa Keizo "Pictorial Dictionary of Japanese Folk Culture" working from the revised edition published in 1984. (The original must have been earlier as Shibusawa died in the 1960's.) Anyway, they've translated 3 of the 5 volumes so far, and 2 of them (volumes 1 and 3) are available FREE as PDFs from the site. For some reason, they didn't get around to putting up a PDF for volume 2. I'm linking to the Kanazawa University Program site here, but will put direct links below because finding them is a bit tricky.

Link to Kanagawa University page for their program: Kanagawa University

Link to Volume 1 regular PDF (chapter links are in Japanese, but they go to English pages): Volume 1 and its glossary/index: Vol 1 glossary and index

Volume 2 was never put up for some reason, although it looks like they meant to? It is available in hard copy. Here is the Worldcat Listing.

Volume 3 and its glossary index can be found as pop-ups on this page. Again, chapter links are in Japanese, text is in English. Vol 3 and glossary and index.

Hopefully, people can find this resource helpful. I think it is wonderful that they chose to share the PDF online. There supposedly are two more volumes in the process of translation, but I'd need to poke around through the newsletters and see what is going on with that. And I'm so slow at reading Japanese!

[Deleted]

Nov 4, 2015 0:49:19 GMT -5 Ki no Kotori said:

Volume 2 was never put up for some reason, although it looks like they meant to?

Yeah, weird. There are spots for it on this page www.himoji.jp/en/publication/result.html but I guess they shut down activity on the project before they could complete the web pages.

Anyway, wow. This is an amazing resource. The descriptions of what is in the images in the Choju Giga would be valuable all on their own, and there is much more here. Thanks for posting!

[Saionji Shonagon]

Downloaded all I could of it last night. NOW I have to add the links to the handout for KWCS - and see if there are any images I want to add to my Powerpoint slide show! (And I thought I was done last weekend too.)

[Ki no Kotori]

My library has put in a request for Interlibrary Loan so I can get my hands on Volume 2 (and index/glossary). So I'm hoping to see what is covered on the part that Kanagawa University didn't put up. Not cheap! Usually ILL is free or maybe just a few dollars. I'm having to pay $22 just to borrow a couple of books! And yes, this is from a library within the US, not something that is being shipped from overseas or anything.