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printing block

On-Yomi: ハン

Koohii stories:

1) [wrightak] 3-9-2006(297): Before the advent of printers in Japan, typewriters couldn't be built as they were in the west due to how many kanji there are. Lots of small printing blocks had to be used instead. One side of the printing block would have a mirrored (anti) image of the kanji. This is true.

2) [matsuyamakiwi] 7-6-2008(71): Nazi propaganda. Picture the printing blocks producing very one-sided (Aryan), anti-Jewish propaganda spreading posters to hang around town.

3) [kanjihito] 3-4-2011(59): Printing block has a one-sided anti-image of what's being printed.

4) [raulir] 31-5-2006(22): Printing blocks are one-sided and have "anti-image" of the page carved into them (the background-colored areas are engraved, not the text).

5) [snallygaster] 8-10-2007(12): Picture teams of monks copying scriptures… before the advent of printing blocks, documents were copied by hand. The copyists were able to get away with making slight omissions & changes when they didn't agree with the source documents, resulting in one-sided versions of the original text. The invention of the printing block ensured all copies would be identical to the original; thus it is anti-one-sided.

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