Publication Dating through Observations of Differences in Woodblock Printing Characteristics among Various Versions of Wanpanbon Editions of Honggildongjeon (Tale of Hong Gil Dong)

Abstract

To understand the process of publication and distribution of ancient Korean novels under the Joseon dynasty and Japanese occupation, collecting information on the publication of various printed materials and estimating their publication date through various methods is extremely important. In this study, the characteristics and differences that appeared in the woodblock printing process were investigated using image comparison among editions of the Honggildongjeon (Tale of Honggildong) of Wanpanbon (完板本) (published in the Jeonju region) with other commercial editions of the ancient Korean novels. Additionally, the publication year of each edition was estimated. Printed images of different versions were compared with those of a recently discovered original series version and the changes in the process of carving replacement woodblocks were investigated and summarized. Various phenomena, such as differences in fonts, borderline shapes and integrity of printed characters, appearing in woodblock prints provided useful information for determining chronological relationships between the prints and estimating the approximate publication year for each edition. The various characteristics of woodblock printing obtained through this study are expected to serve as a reference for estimating the relationship between the printing method and the approximate publication date of old books and paper-based printed historical records.