Oxford University

Abstract

Any history of the development of Japanese studies at Oxford needs to start, as with many other subjects, with the history of the Japanese collection at the Bodleian library. The first known accession of Japanese printed material was three volumes of the so-called Saga-bon, books printed with moveable-type in the Saga district of Kyoto in the early seventeenth century, which were presented to the Library in 1629 by Robert Viney, rector of Barnack, who studied at Oxford in 1621–1625. 1 The Bodleian also possesses some very rare examples of missionary literature of the Jesuit Mission Press in Japan, collectively known as Kirishitan-ban, that were produced from 1590 until the expulsion of the missionaries from Japan in 1614.

Matched Nanban terms

• anchor Kirishitan
• themes kirishitan-ban

Provenance

• openalex (W4416857902)
  2026-04-30T19:55:59.190767+00:00

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