The Oldest Surviving Work of Japanese Printing by Movable Type (1598)

Using Korean printing equipment brought back by Toyotomi Hideyoshi's army in 1593, and type cast by the order of Tokugawa Ieyasu before he became shogun, the Japanese printed an edition of the Confucian (Confucius) Analects at the order of Emperor Go-Yōzei. This document is the oldest surviving work of Japanese printing by movable type.

Despite the appeal of movable type, the Japanese decided that the running script or semi-cursive style of Japanese writing was better reproduced using woodblocks, and by 1640 woodblock printing was adopted for nearly all purposes in Japan.