Japanese books in 17th-century England with Professor Peter Kornicki

Thu 3 February 2022

This is an online talk hosted on Zoom Webinars.

Richard Cocks was the head of the English Factory in Japan for the ten years of its operation, from 1613 to 1623. Soon after his arrival he began sending Japanese books back to England and some of them survive to this day. Why did he do it, since he must have known that nobody in England could read a word of them? He sent them to prominent people and one of them showed a Japanese almanac sent by Cocks to King James I, who was unimpressed. In this talk, Professor Peter Kornicki shall explore how and why the books reached England and what subsequently became of them.

About the speaker: Professor Peter Kornicki is an Emeritus Professor of Japanese. Educated at St George’s College, Weybridge, and Lincoln College, Oxford, he has taught at the University of Tasmania, Kyoto University and then, from 1985, at Cambridge, where he has been a fellow of Robinson College since 1986.

This event is being hosted as part of Cambridge University Libraries' exhibition, Samurai: History and Legend. Samurai are a well-known image of Japan, but they are as much legend as history. Our exhibition explores the literary heritage of the samurai and the changing nature of Japanese warrior history and culture from the 12th to the 19th centuries.

Cost: Free