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This project has been a long time in preparation and there are many people and institutions that have assisted along the way. Most of the research was done during two years in Kyoto, Japan, while on sabbatical leave from the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at Indiana University. During academic year 1994–1995 I was at the Jinbun Kagaku Kenkyūjo at Kyoto University , and I wish to acknowledge the help and support of Professor Yokoyama Toshio and the library staff there. Most of the archival research was completed in 2000–2001 while I was a visiting fellow at the Kokusai Nihon Bunka Kenkyu ̄jo (Nichibunken) in Kyoto, thanks to an invitation from Professor Sonoda Hidehiro. The superb library staff there helped me gain access to many materials I might not otherwise have located. Among the faculty and staff of that institution I wish to thank in particular for their time and interest are James Baxter, Kasaya Kazuhiko, Katō Yoshiro, and Morimoto Kazuhiko. A number of historical archivists in the Kansai area provided access to sources and were indispensable in getting permissions to reprint illustrations. I wish to thank especially Ms. Tamaki Reiko of the Mukō City Bunka Shiryōkan , Ms. Momose Chidori of the Nagaokakyō City Library, Mr. Itō Munehiro of the Kyoto City Rekishi Shiryōkan, and Professor Usami Hideki of Shiga University. A great many scholars in Japan generously supported my project with their time and expertise. Among them are Professor Emeritus Fukawa Kiyoshi of Kobe University, Professor Emeritus Igeta Ryōji of Doshisha University, Professor Mizumoto Kunihiko of Kyoto Furitsu University, Professor Emeritus Motoyama Yukihiko of Kyoto University and Kansai University, Professor Umemura Kayo of Nara University of Education, Umihara Tōru, president of Kyōto Acknowledgments Gakuen Daigaku, Professor Yokota Fuyuhiko of Kyōto Tachibana Joshi Daigaku , and Professor Aoki Michio of Senshū University. I also wish to thank Mrs. Izumi Koide, former librarian at International House in Tokyo, for introductions and reference help. Professor Kimura Masanobu of Chikushi Jogakuen University and Professor Yakuwa Tomohiro of Niigata University, experts on literacy materials, helped me out in myriad ways before, during, and after yearlong stays at Indiana University. To both of them I am very indebted. I wish to thank Professor Kate Nakai of Sophia University, editor of Monumenta Nipponica, for permission to use text and graphics from an earlier version of the epilogue, which was previously published in that journal. I am grateful to Lynn Riggs for help in providing the graphics and to R. Brian Smith and Scott Taylor of Indiana University for reworking the illustrations into the form used here. Professor Richard Torrance of The Ohio State University and an anonymous reader for University of Hawai‘i Press made many constructive suggestions . I wish to thank my colleagues at Indiana University, in particular Professors Laurel Cornell, Robert Eno, Tom Keirstead, and Scott O’Bryan for reading parts of early drafts and making useful suggestions. Jurgis Elisonas, professor emeritus at Indiana University, read through the entire work and made many suggestions that have made this a better book. Even in retirement his editing skills and his generosity in sharing his profound knowledge of Japan have not flagged. I wish to thank Patricia Crosby of the University of Hawai‘i Press for her support over four books published with the Press. I am grateful to Drew Bryan and Ann Ludeman and for their careful editing of this work. My wife, Noriko, did many dictionary searches and helped with difficult readings of characters. I thank her for her constant support. Needless to say, errors of fact or interpretation that may remain are the sole responsibility of the author. Bloomington, Indiana xii -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...

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