Seal - Fuu

A term used in paleography. Strictly speaking, fuku means adding a seal to a document so that it cannot be opened before it reaches the recipient, but broadly speaking, the term fukushiki includes the way the document is folded and sealed. Shosatsuyo documents usually consist of three pieces of paper: the main paper, the thank-you paper, and the seal. The main text is written on one of the main papers, or on both the main paper and the thank-you paper. The main paper and thank-you paper are then placed back to back, folded from the left, and wrapped in the seal. The addressee and sender are written on top of the paper, and the document is then sealed with a fold seal, twist seal, or glue seal (glue seals were mainly used in the early modern period) before being delivered to the recipient. This is the formal case, but sometimes the seal is omitted and the document is sent to the recipient using the main paper and thank-you paper, or just the main paper. There are three methods for adding a seal to this main paper or to this and the thank-paper: kirifu, musubi, and musubi. Kirifuku and musubi were widely seen in the Middle Ages. Musubi can be seen in some Shosoin documents, but is more common in the early modern period. In medieval documents of a book-paper style, seals were added to documents of a more private nature, but not to official documents.

[Ueshima Yu]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

古文書学上の用語。封とは、厳密には、文書が受取人に届くまでに開けられないように、封じ目を加えることであるが、広くは、文書の折り方、封の仕方を含めて封式という。書札様(しょさつよう)文書は、普通、本紙(ほんし)・礼紙(らいし)・封紙の三紙からなり、本文は本紙一紙に、または本紙・礼紙の二紙に書く。その後、本紙・礼紙を背中合わせにして重ね、左から折り畳み、それを封紙に包み、上書(うわがき)として宛所(あてどころ)・差出書を書き、折(おり)封・捻(ひねり)封・糊(のり)封（糊封は主として近世）などの封をして相手方に届ける。これが正式な場合であるが、ときには封紙を省略し、本紙と礼紙、あるいは本紙一紙だけで相手方に送ることもある。この本紙または本紙・礼紙に封じ目を加える方法としては、切(きり)封・捻封・結(むすび)封の三つがある。切封・捻封は広く中世にみられる。結封は一部正倉院(しょうそういん)文書にもその例をみるが、近世に多くみられる。中世の書札様文書にあっては、私的な性格の強い文書には封じ目を加えるが、公的な文書にはみられない。

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