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are wooden tablets found at Japanese archaeological sites.
Most of the tablets date from the mid-7th to mid-8th century, but some are as late as the early modern period.
They have been found in sites across Japan, but mostly around the old capitals of
Wooden Tablet Database
Mokkan
Department of Japanese Studies,
are wooden tablets found at Japanese archaeological sites.
Most of the tablets date from the mid-7th to mid-8th century, but some are as late as the early modern period.
They have been found in sites across Japan, but mostly around the old capitals of Nara
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an " independent federal agency of the United States government within the executive branch", charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It i ...
and Fujiwara Fujiwara (, written: 藤原 lit. "''Wisteria'' field") is a Japanese surname. (In English conversation it is likely to be rendered as .) Notable people with the surname include:
; Families
* The Fujiwara clan and its members
** Fujiwara no Kamatari ...
.
They were used for informal purposes, such as shipping tags, memoranda, and simple messages, and thus complement official records transmitted on paper.
Finds
The first ''mokkan'' was found inMie Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Mie Prefecture has a population of 1,781,948 () and has a geographic area of . Mie Prefecture is bordered by Gifu Prefecture to the north, Shiga Prefecture and Kyoto Prefecture to ...
in 1928, but extensive caches have been found during construction work since the 1960s, especially in the 1980s and 1990s.
In August 1988, some 50,000 tablets from the early 8th century were found during the excavation for a department store in Nara. The site that turned out to be the residence of Prince Nagaya
Nagaya ( ') (684 – 20 March 729) was a politician of the Nara period and an imperial prince of Japan, a son of Prince Takechi (grandson of Emperor Tenmu).
His father was Prince Takechi and his mother Princess Minabe (a daughter of Emperor T ...
, a minister of the Nara court, and the tablets have improved historians' understanding of the period.
Over 150,000 have been recovered.
Language
Some ''mokkan'' are written inClassical Chinese
Classical Chinese, also known as Literary Chinese (古文 ''gǔwén'' "ancient text", or 文言 ''wényán'' "text speak", meaning
"literary language/speech"; modern vernacular: 文言文 ''wényánwén'' "text speak text", meaning
"literar ...
, but many are written in Old Japanese
is the oldest attested stage of the Japanese language, recorded in documents from the Nara period (8th century). It became Early Middle Japanese in the succeeding Heian period, but the precise delimitation of the stages is controversial.
Old Jap ...
, demonstrating that literacy was widespread in the late 7th century.
The texts are typically short and more informal than the poetry and liturgies that make up the main corpus of Old Japanese.
See also
*Bamboo and wooden slips
Bamboo and wooden slips () were the main media for writing documents in China before the widespread introduction of paper during the first two centuries AD. (Silk was occasionally used, for example in the Chu Silk Manuscript, but was prohibit ...
References
Works cited
* *External links
{{Commons categoryWooden Tablet Database
Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties
The , also known by its former name, the Nara Research Institute for Cultural Properties, is one of two research institutes that comprise the National Institutes for Cultural Heritage, an independent administrative institution created in 2001. Est ...
Mokkan
Department of Japanese Studies,
KU Leuven
KU Leuven (or Katholieke Universiteit Leuven) is a Catholic research university in the city of Leuven, Belgium. It conducts teaching, research, and services in computer science, engineering, natural sciences, theology, humanities, medicine, l ...
Old Japanese texts
Writing media
7th century in Japan
8th century in Japan