earticle

영어

The purpose of this research is to look into the process of how researches on lending library in Edo Period have developed and how lending library itself had been changed in Edo period. In the early days, the study on this subject was merely a part of public library research and later on, researchers of literature started to work on this field as a part of study on Yomihon. Many researchers did their study on lending library, especially to understand more about Yomihon. At present, it could be said that more people take growing interest in the field. Most researchers have been presuming that the lending library might have appeared before Genroku Period (1688-1704), but there is no clear evidence. Various kinds of documentary record about the lending library have emerged since the eighteenth century. At the time, function of the lending library was not only limited to lending books. They actually took a part in publication and even reached the stage of influencing the writers. The heyday of lending library is from the late eighteenth century to the mid-nineteenth century. At the end of the nineteenth century, demand of fundamental changes in literary contents and printing technology increased as new Western civilization came in. This led to the advent of new type of lending library.