Prohibition Order - Kinsho Rei

Japanese: 禁書令 - きんしょれい

As part of its policy of national isolation, the Edo Shogunate established this law to prevent the inflow of Christian thought. Its target was Chinese books, not Western books. Jesuit missionaries had been coming to China since the end of the 16th century, writing doctrinal books while proselytizing, or introducing Western science as a means of proselytizing. The Shogunate enacted a book ban in 1630 (Kan'ei 7), but the purpose of this was to prevent the import of doctrinal books that had been mixed in with imported Chinese books, and the import of Western scientific books unrelated to Christianity was generally permitted.

Source: Heibonsha World Encyclopedia, 2nd Edition Information

Japanese:

江戸幕府が鎖国の一環として，キリスト教思想の流入を防ぐために設けた法令。その対象は漢籍であって洋書ではない。中国には16世紀末以来，イエズス会系の宣教師が渡来し，布教のかたわら教義書を著し，あるいは布教の手段として西洋科学の紹介につとめた。幕府は1630年(寛永7)に禁書令を制定するが，それは輸入漢籍に混入した教義書の輸入をはばむことを目的としたもので，キリスト教と無関係な西洋科学書の輸入は原則として認められた。

出典　株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典第２版について　情報

<<: Kin Shiryo

>>: Index of Forbidden Books (English: The Index of Forbidden Books)