| 1 | In 1899, at Anyo in China, there was a big excavation.They were relics of Yin dynasty (BC.1500-1100). |
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| 2 | We can see many shells of tortoise at the museum at Anyo. |
| 3 | ![]() We can see a script "woman" on the shell of tortoise. We call one of the scripts "Kokotsu-bun". Kokotsu means the shell of a tortoise or the bone of an ox. |
| 4 | ![]() At Anyo, many bronze vessels were also found in the ground. We can see some scripts inside the bronze vessels. We call them "Kin-bun." |
| 5 | ![]() You can see another vessel and the script "woman". It means "a woman squats herself down with her hands crossed." |
| 6 | ![]() The researchers of "Kin-bun" made the year of making each bronze clear. This is the most famous vessel,"Daiutei." It was made in Zhous dynasty (BC. 1100-300) |
| 7 | ![]() This is the oldest stone on which Tensho was ngraved(BC.374).Near Qin dynasty (late Zhous dynasty). Kin-bun became a little different from the early one. We call this style of the script "Tensho". It looks rather tidy and neat. |
| 8 | These are the vessels made of bronze or iron in Qin dynasty (BC.220-200). You can see the script "woman". Its vertical line leans to the left.
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| 9 | ![]() At Han dynasty (BC. 206-AD.220) in China, the style of the script changed. The vertical center line changed to horizontal, oblong style to wide. We call this style "Reisho".We can see many monuments in Reisho in China. |
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After Han dynasty, in southern part of China, paper
became prevalent. The style of the scripts on paper changed again. We call the upper one "Gyosho", the lower one "Sosho" |
| 12 | ![]() At northern part of China, there were many records of
deceased persons' names and lives inscribed on tombstones. We call this style of script on tombstones "Kaisho". |
| 13 | ![]() There were many beautiful scripts in Sosho, Gyosho, and Kaisho, in Tang dynasty (AD.618-907). Let me introduce some representative printing. This is Kaisho. |
| 14 | ![]() This is Kaisho, too. |
| 15 | ![]() This is Sosho. The lower part is the script "woman."Three styles of the scripts, that is, Kaisho, Gyosho, and Sosho were completed in Tang dynasty in China. |
| 16 | This is the oldest writing in Japan by Shotoku-taishi.(AD.615).For 600-800 years. many styles of writing, that is, Tensho, Reisho, Kaisho, Gyosho, and Sosho came into Japan from China. ![]() |
| 17 | In Nara age (AD.710-794) Japanese wrote the Buddhist Scripture in Kaisho. Early Heian age (AD.794-1000) letters or poems were written in Gyosho or Sosho. You can see the script "woman" written by famous writers in Japan. This is Gyosho by Tofu Ono. ![]() ![]() |
| 18 | This is Sosho by Yukinari Fujiwara.![]() ![]() |
| 19 | In the middle of Heian (1000), Japanese originated Kana from Sosho.![]() ![]() |