2025 Foxcroft Lecture: Professor Peter Kornicki

Why did nobody read the first texts printed in Japan? Professor Peter Kornicki discusses prints and manuscripts in Japan from the 8th century onwards.

In the years 764-770 CE, a large number of texts, such as Buddhist prayers, were printed in Japan – but nobody could read them. In fact, they were not meant to be read.

This was because almost all printed texts produced in East Asia at this time were Buddhist prayers that were written in Chinese, produced by Buddhist monasteries and intended for Buddhist ritual acts. This was the case in Japan, China and Korea.  

After this early period of print culture, printing was not taken up again in Japan until the 11th century. Over the following 500 years, almost all printed texts were Buddhist in nature and written in Chinese, and printed by Buddhist temples rather than by commercial publishers. This means that all Japanese literature circulated only in manuscript.

Dramatic changes at the end of the 16th century led to a transformation of printing and the birth of commercial publishers producing texts in Japanese, including works of fiction. 

Discover more about the fascinating history of printing in Japan as Professor Peter Kornicki delivers the 2025 Foxcroft Lecture at State Library Victoria. 

About Professor Peter Kornicki

Professor Peter Kornicki taught Japanese at the University of Tasmania from 1978 to 1982 and acquired a taste for bushwalking. Later he moved to Cambridge where he became Professor of Japanese and Chair of the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Languages. He has written extensively on the history of the book in Japan and East Asia and has also written a book on the wartime learning of Japanese by codebreakers in England and Australia.

About the Foxcroft Lecture

The annual Foxcroft Lecture honours the pioneering bibliographer Albert Broadbent Foxcroft, who began working at State Library Victoria in 1902 at the age of 17 until his untimely death in 1938. He left an enduring legacy of scholarship and was highly regarded and influential in developing the Library's rare books collection.

Discover more

Visit World of the Book (closes Sunday 17 May 2026) to see an example of a Hyakumantō Darani, a paper scroll produced in Japan more than 1250 years ago.