A Study of the Process of the Realization of types of the Direction of Writing in Japanese

1.本文首先论证了明治初年一家名为仓谷的印刷公司在日本从左向右横书的诞生中发挥了重要作用。通过引进凸版印刷技术，这家公司与中国的西方传教印刷公司建立了联系。西方传教士所写的汉语书籍中的东方语言，是按照西方的书写方式，从左到右横向书写的。这一书写体系可能推动了日本从左向右横写的开始。2.指出前现代时期肖像画中常见的诗句与肖像画的书写方向相同。这种写法并非源于中国，而是诞生于日本的中世纪。3.文章最后讨论了写法存在的意义及其对画卷结构的影响。

1.This paper first demonstrates that a printing firm called Kurataya in early Meiji era played a major role in the birth of the left-to-right horizontal writings of Japanese. Through the introduction of letterpress techniques, this firm connected with western mission printing firms in China. Oriental languages in the Chinese language books written by missionaries from the west were written horizontally from left to right, in accordance with the western way of writing. It is possible that this writing system gave an impetus to the start of the left-to-right horizontal writings of Japanese.2.It then points out that poems and sentences often seen in the portraits of the pre-modern era were written in the same direction that those portraits were facing. This type of direction in writing did not come from China but was born in the medieval era in Japan.3.Finally this paper discusses the significance of the existence of writing directions and their influence, especially on the structure of picture scrolls.