Schreib-Riten (shorei 書礼): Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der japanischen Briefetikette by Markus Rüttermann (review)

In the days before we liked each other on Facebook, tweeted, whatsapped, texted, and still wrote the occasional e-mail, we wrote letters. For composing letters there existed rules regarding forms of address and choice of words, as well as a number of formulas for saving face, saving time, and economizing on thinking. The Far East was no exception.

The title and subtitle of the volumes under review promise a description of Japanese epistolary etiquette. In order to address this seemingly harmless topic, author Markus Rüttermann needed three volumes and a total of 1693 pages, although João Rodriguez (1561?–1633?) and Jeroen Lamers have shown that it can be done in only 103.¹ There is a good reason, however, for this vast difference in size: Schreib-Riten was Rüttermann’s Habilitationsschrift (defended in 2002 at the Humboldt University in Berlin)—the second dissertation that German scholars must produce in order to qualify for academic appointment. And a Habilitationsschrift, it is generally understood, must be both thick and exhaustive.

Schreib-Riten is arranged in four parts, whose titles can be translated as follows: (1) Fundamentals of Epistolary Communication and Aspects of Intertextuality, (2) Ritual and Situational Encoding of Epistolary Communication, (3) Aspects of Textual Encoding of Epistolary Communication, and (4) Aspects of Graphic, Material, and Nonverbal Encoding of Epistolary Communication. These are followed by a number of appendices, including extensive translations from the sources; a bibliography; and—thankfully, in a book of this size—an index.

Unlike Rodriguez and Lamers, Rüttermann set out to describe all aspects of all Japanese letter writing through the ages. Since fellow specialists in the area of epistolary studies are few, the great majority of readers will never read the entire book, but will select only those sections that are of interest to them in view of their specialization. Literary specialists may be interested in the way letters were folded, sealed, and delivered (for which, see pages 1133–1287), and art historians, in the chapter on epistolary motifs in the fine arts (pages 1288–1304) or in the rules regarding the use of square, running, and cursive hands (pages 1035–1132). Sinologists should be interested in the rites regarding oral communication as described in the Liji (the Book of Rites) and the relationship Rüttermann establishes between those rites and the rules of epistolary etiquette later formulated on that basis, or in Chinese prescriptions regarding letter writing, or in Chinese collections of exemplary letters (topics covered in various parts of the work, including on pages 17–48, 163–85, 270–78, 347–51, and 413–56). Linguists, who as a rule evince little interest in the epistolary language of sōrōbun, will find whatever they need to begin the exploration of this much-neglected subject.

Rüttermann’s book is of greatest importance—both as a reference work and, potentially, as a textbook—for students of Japanese history. Letters are one of the historian’s most valuable sources, and though they are routinely treated in books about historical documents (monjo), for historians this book would be a useful reference work and textbook. You have to know German, of course, but if you do, you have access to an overview of all modern Japanese research on every aspect of public and private letter writing in Japan from the Nara period till the end of the twentieth century, and to a selection of letters from each period, in the original Chinese or Japanese, presented with a transcription into Latin script, an analysis, and a translation.

Rüttermann distinguishes five periods: the Very Early Middle Ages (Nara), the Early Middle Ages (Heian), the High and Late Middle Ages (chūsei), the New Age (Neuzeit; kinsei), and the Modern Age (kindai and gendai). In part 3, which I consider the core of the work, the distribution of pages over these five periods gives an indication of their...