World's Most Beautiful Book

[Mulboyne]

Kyodo: Book on Japan's typography named 'world's most beautiful book' of the year
BERLIN — A book on the father of Japan's modern day typography has been named "the world's most beautiful book" of the year by the German foundation Stiftung Buchkunst. The book featuring beautiful typography was voted the most outstanding work among 628 books from 31 countries screened by the foundation. The book titled "Nihon no Kindai Katsuji" by the Nagasaki-based Kindai Insatsu Katsuji Bunka Hozonkai, traces the work of Shozo Motoki, who created the first Japanese typesetting system at the end of the 19th century and is often dubbed the "Gutenberg of Japan."[quote="Christianity in China]William Gamble, American missionary, was born in Ireland. He was appointed by the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the United States to superintend their mission press in China. He arrived at Hongkong on 13 June 1858, and proceded to his destination at Ningbo, Zhejiang. There he took charge of the printing operations. In 1862 he moved his establishment to Shanghai. He used his typographical inventions to improve Chinese movable type printing. Mr. Gamble conceived the idea of cutting characters on boxwood and making plates from these by electrotype. He backed these plates with type metal and so made matrices by the hundreds, instead of singly, as had been necessary with the older method. Characters produced by the new process, known in the Far East as "Gamble's Characters", were clearer and also retained more of the original calligraphic effect. It was possible, moreover, to reduce the face of the type, without loss of clarity, and this small type made feasible the printing of the whole Bible in Chinese within the compass of one volume. He resigned from the American Presbyterian Mission in 1869. In November 1869, Gamble arrived in Nagasaki and gave Shozo Motoki (the "Japanese Gutenberg") a thorough lesson in type manufacturing technique.[/quote]