The Dispersion of Jesuit Books Printed in Japan: Trends in Bibliographical Research and in Intellectual History

Abstract

This article introduces the recent bibliographical research on Kirishitan-ban, a series of books published by the Jesuit mission press in Japan in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Afterwards, the books were dispersed through political turmoil; some are still to be found scattered across the world. In addition, the study presents a textual comparison of some Kirishitan-ban with their European originals, in order to examine the compilation and translation policies of the Jesuits in Japan. Authors or editors sometimes manipulated or revised important sections, for instance omitting a statement on predestination or adding a discourse on the immortality of the soul, illustrating the Jesuits’ strategy of balancing the Japanese and the European-Catholic intellectual climates of their time. Analyzing both the books and their contents will contribute to the study of the globalization of Jesuit intellectual history and library research.