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Scholars have proposed that we will benefit by studying our co-evolution with technology in understanding human existence. Here you will explore how examples of technology shape our cognitive, political, and cultural landscapes.Which of these tools, devices, or formulae continue to influence our world today?
"Getting Into Bed" - Moronobu Hishikawa. (1618-1694).
"Getting Into Bed" - Moronobu Hishikawa. (1618-1694).
A sex-worker takes a customer to bed in the Yoshiwara licensed prostitution quarter in Edo, Japan in the seventeenth century.
“Getting into bed,” The Yoshiwara fūzoku zukan (Customs of the Yoshiwara Picture Scroll), painted by Hishikawa, Moronobu. (1618-1694).
"O-urami o tsutaemairasesoro" (I write to you of my resentment) - Ihara Saikaku. (1642-1693).
"O-urami o tsutaemairasesoro" (I write to you of my resentment) - Ihara Saikaku. (1642-1693).
At left: The illustration shows a country bumpkin being entertained by a sex-worker in a house of assignation, laying his head on her lap.
At right: Much like the early printing of the Melchioris Guilandini Papyrus, this portion of Yorozu no fumi hōgu (Letters Gleaned from Myriad Scraps of Paper, 1696) was printed and yet holds to many of the aesthetic patterns of a written manuscript. The writing seen here is a combination of Japanese syllabary and cursive Chinese characters. In order to reproduce the aesthetics of the lines of connected text of a cursive manuscript at a relatively low cost, each page of this book was printed with a single carved wooden block rather than with moveable type.
Illustration and text for “O-urami o tsutaemairasesoro” (I write to you of my resentment) in Yorozu no fumi hōgu (Letters Gleaned from Myriad Scraps of Paper, 1696), a collection of epistolary tales by Ihara Saikaku (1642–1693).
“Straight Out of the Year 1000.” Robin Dewes, produced in MST 20B, winter 2023. This newsletter highlights Dewes’s explanation of the technology used in Korean woodcuts.
The illustrations here seek to depict traditional Japanese writing implements, the inkbrush and inkstone, for East India Company members in London. The four standard tools used in modern Japanese calligraphy are referred to as the “Four Treasures of Study.” These include mulberry paper, an inkstick and inkstone, and of course, the inkbrush itself. What connections can we draw between this illustration from the 1670’s and modern tools?
Atlas Japannensis: being remarkable addresses by way of embassy from the East-India Company of the United provinces, to the emperor of Japan: containing a description of their several territories, cities, temples, and fortresses; their religions, laws, and customs; their prodigious wealth, and gorgeous habits; the nature of their soil, plants, beasts, hills, rivers, and fountains: with the character of the ancient and modern Japanners. Collected out of their several writings and journals by Arnoldus Montanus and John Ogilby. (1670).
Technological changes and the introduction of the printing press changed the way that the public accessed the written word and worlds. This 1518 production shows the frontispiece of Marsilio Ficino’s Latin translation of Plato’s dialogues. Notice the lone scribe at work over a manuscript at the top of the border, in comparison to the three individuals operating the printing press represented in the central image.
Platonis Opera a Marsilio Fincino Traducta: Adiectis ad eius vitae & Operu Enarrationem Axiocho ab Rodulpho Agricola by Plato. (1518).
“Hito shiranu baba no uzumigane” (Grandma’s Secret Treasure Trove) - Ihara Saikaku. (1642-1693).
“Hito shiranu baba no uzumigane” (Grandma’s Secret Treasure Trove) - Ihara Saikaku. (1642-1693).
Two-page illustration for “Hito shiranu baba no uzumigane” (Grandma’s Secret Treasure Trove) in Yorozu no fumi hōgu (Letters Gleaned from Myriad Scraps of Paper, 1696), a collection of epistolary tales by Ihara Saikaku (1642–1693). The images do not correspond to any particular scene in the story, but apparently the man in the upper right corner of the frame on the right is reading in his family’s shop the letter from his younger brother that constitutes this story. Behind him and to his left are two money boxes. He is joined by three shop assistants. Two are weighing coins and one is making calculations with an abacus. Assorted visitors occupy the earthen-floored vestibule of the shop.
“Hito shiranu baba no uzumigane” (Grandma’s Secret Treasure Trove) in Yorozu no fumi hōgu (Letters Gleaned from Myriad Scraps of Paper, 1696), by Ihara Saikaku. (1642–1693).
This manuscript page displays detailed illuminations. These illustrations had both aesthetic and functional purposes, as they beautified and complemented the written text. Medieval Europeans also used illuminations to better comprehend the implied meaning of the text, due to the importance of iconography at the time, which responded to generally low literacy rates among the general population.
Hours of the Virgin, in Latin, preceded by a Calendar in French, and followed by the Penitential Psalms and Litany, the Office of the Dead, and Prayers to the Virgin and Memorials for Saints, in Latin by Catholic Church. (Before 1497).
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