| The Public Paperfolding History Project
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| Genji Monogatari (The Tale of Genji) by Murasaki Shikibu, 1021 | |||||||
| 'Genji
Monogatari' (The Tale of Genji) was written by Murasaki
Shikibu and was substantially complete by 1021. It
contains many references to letters, some of which are
said to be folded, knotted, twisted or wrapped. The
information on this page is drawn from the English
translation by Royall Tyler, which was published by
Penguin Group in 2001. Previous English translation do
not distinguish between the various types of letter that
Royall Tyler mentions. A full copy of the translation can be accessed here. The page nos given below refer to the page nos in this source. Despite the best efforts of the translator it is possible that English words and phrases may not be completely accurate interpretations of words in the underlying Japanese text. The information on this page should therefore be used with some caution. ********** In his General Glossary at the end of the book Royall Tyler distinguishes between three different types of letter, but also mentions a fourth, not mentioned in the glossary, which is rolled up and twisted at the ends ie the twisted letter. 1, The musubi-bumi or knotted letter:
2, The tate-bumi or straight-folded letter
3, The tsutsumi-bumi or wrapped letter
He also uses the term 'folding paper' to refer to kaishi. As far as I can understand this rather odd description does not imply that the paper is for folding but that it is folded up in order to diminish its size.
********** Knotted Letters p223
*** p374
*** p807
*** p858
*** p1829
********* Straight Letters p690
*** p1676
*** p1791
*** p1829
********** Wrapped Letters p1056
*** p1318
*** p1342
*** p1408
*** p1966
********** Rolled and Twisted Letters p1179
*** p1301
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