January 2023 issue of the introduction of metal print and the beginning of information dissemination

The birth of the Ming Dynasty and the introduction to Yokohama
　In the Ming Dynasty, vertical and horizontal paintings are vertical and horizontal, vertical paintings are thick, horizontal paintings are thin, driven at the beginning of horizontal paintings, scales at the end, splashes of vertical paintings, and rains on the left and right. It is a typeface with features. It was born in China in the morning. Initially, it was a typeface made for printing based on square writing, which was common as handwritten characters at the time for standardizing (woodblock print) printing. As printing technology developed from printing to printing, printing began to be made of metal for printing, and metallic printing of Ming Dynasty, which wrote Chinese, began to be made.
　It was China that invented the typeface called the Ming Dynasty, but it was in Europe in the early 19th century that Oriental studies flourished. The type production technology was introduced to China along with the Christian mission of Asia, and was introduced from China to Nagasaki at the beginning of the Meiji era. Then, the following year, it was passed on to Yokohama, and Yokohama began its journey as a major information dissemination base in Japan.

Figure 1: "Prayer of the Lord of 150 Languages" printed in France, French Imperial Printing Office 1805 Hiroshi Komiyama Bunko, Collection of Yokohama City Museum of History　

Special exhibition "Small Giants Supporting Modern Type Japan"
　Hirofumi Komiyayama, a typeface designer and type history researcher, elucidated the world-wide long history of this type with materials he collected. Recently, Mr. Komiyayama donated the collected valuable materials to the Yokohama City Museum of History, and the catalog of "Hiroshi Komiyama Bunko" was published on the website (outside site). And this time, the Yokohama City Museum of History is holding a special exhibition "Small Giants Who Supported Modern Type Japan" (outside site) utilizing donated materials. The exhibition is an exhibition of the history of print, following the birth of kanji characters revealed by Mr. Komiyayama and the traditional journey to Japan.

Project contents-"Prayer of the Lord in 150 Languages", "Ming Dynasty Metal Type", "Domestic Print Machine", etc.-
　The exhibition introduces about 150 materials, one of which is a book published in France in 1805, called "The Lord of the 150 Languages." This book is the order of Napoleon I, which was taken up by the French Imperial Printing Office in 150 languages, and most of the characters unique to each language, not woodblocks or copper plates, were printed using print. If you look at the part where the kanji type of "The Lord of Prayer of 150 Languages" is printed (Fig. 1), you can see that the typeface is Ming Dynasty. And the word "country" is falling. This book is the oldest book printed in the Ming Dynasty type among the materials introduced in the exhibition.
　In addition, there will be exhibitions such as the metal print of the Ming Dynasty produced by missionaries for the missionary missionary of Christianity in China (Fig. 2), and a domestic printing machine (Fig. 3), which was produced by the Hirano Printing Works, which started printing and printing in Tokyo, taking advantage of the technology introduced to Nagasaki.