Hye Ok Park holds Ph. D. in History from Claremont Graduate University, Master’s in Library Information Science from Texas A&M-Commerce, and B.A. in History from Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea. She has served as Executive Director of Digital Campus at CSU, Fresno, and Director of e-Learning at CSU, Pomona, consecutively from 1998 to 2007, after having served as Associate University Librarian at Adelphi University in New York, Library Information Systems Director at City University of New York, and California State University, Fresno, in the 1990s and 2000s. She has published numerous papers in English on various subjects in library and information technology as well as in history, such as “The History of Pre-Gutenberg Woodblock and Movable Type Printing in Korea,” in International Journal of Humanities and Social Science in 2014. Her dissertation, Arirang People in Transnational Diasporas of Russian Far East and Manchuria, 1895-1920, has been published in Korean and in English in 2021.

In the studies of world recording culture, paper has been an icon for creativity and innovation. But, the production of recordings completely depended on hand-writing, which consequently restricted the mass transmission and distribution of information. To redeem the issue, mass printing whose types were made out of mud, wood and metal were exploited. Thus, the true meaning of recording starts from putting paper, types and ink together. Thus, in session2, we will talk about the history and prior relations of the most important printing materials and its meaning. Specifically, we will talk about the Korean Baegun Hwasang Chorok Buljo Jisimcheyojeol as well as Nanmingquan Song Zhengdaoge, which were 78 and 216 years prior to the Gutenburg’s metal printing in 1455. We will talk about the change in the style of the Chinese character and its historical significance on the history of print ing culture.

Lee Seung Cheol worked as the curator of the Cheongju Early Printing Museum and is currently Acting Director General of UNESCO International Centre for Documentary Heritage, located in Cheongju, Korea. He received his Ph.D. in Korean Language & Literature and Department of Library and Information Science, and his major research areas are ‘Jikji’ and ‘Korean moveable metal type printing technology’. For a long time, he has worked with the BNF, the Gutenberg Museum, the Plantin-Moretus Museum in Belgium, the Japanese Museum of Print, and others. Major studies include Jikji Research; Jikji, speaks; and Research of Goryeo period Moveable Metal Type.

Noh Ji Young is a Programme Specialist in Research & Development Division of UNESCO’s International Centre for Documentary Heritage(ICDH). She holds a master’s degree in Archival and Information Sciences and is a certified National Archivist. Her primary research focuses on archival curation, which led to the her master’s thesis, “A study on the role of archives and archivists in the era of industry 4.0: Focusing on DCC curation lifecycle model.” As her research interests expanded, Jiyoung strives to discover and develop effective ways to utilize documentary heritage on a global scale while also playing a key role in coordinating the joint international research program ‘From Jikji to Gutenberg’ and overseeing the development of the monitoring system for the UNESCO Memory of the World programme.

From Jikji to Gutenberg initiative is a long-term project that spans from 2022 to 2027, with funding from the National Endowment for Humanities(NEH) in the United States, the Overseas Korean Cultural Heritage Foundation(OKCHF), and UNESCO International Centre for Documentary Heritage (ICDH). The initiative began as a collaboration between J. Marriott Library at the University of Utah and UNESCO ICDH, and has since grown to involve museums and educational institutions worldwide, such as the Smithsonian Museum & Gallery, Library of Congress, and Princeton University Scheide Library, as well as a team of researchers from various fields related to documentary heritage and bibliographical history. This team of researchers, including historians, scientists, and conservators, is conducting ongoing studies and investigations to discover new evidence on both Eastern and Western printing culture. The project is actively engaged in global conferences, publications, and scientific experiments. For example, in 2022, a team of scientists and staff members of ICDH gathered more than 60 pieces of early printings from both the Western and Eastern world to conduct chemical mapping through XRF (X-ray Fluorescence) and XANES methods at SLAC National Laboratory’s Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource. The team is still in the process of analyzing the data, but the project has already garnered attention from press media worldwide, including NBC, Wired Magazine, and C-Net. In 2023, a team of over 50 scholars and researchers from more than 16 countries gathered in-person for the first time at the Library of Congress to share knowledge and experience on the early printing culture and history as part of a scholarly colloquium. The ultimate goal of this project is to publish an extensive catalog in 2025 and open a worldwide exhibition in 2027. The catalog will comprise scientific and historical research and analysis on two UNESCO Memory of the World inscriptions, Jikji and the Gutenberg Bible, along with related early printing cultures of both the Western and Eastern world. The exhibition will be opened in museums and libraries in different cities worldwide, showcasing a 42-line Gutenberg Bible and other early printed materials related to the history of printing cultures, displayed alongside an earlier Korean book printed from castmetal type. The project is a groundbreaking initiative that aims to shed light on the similarities and differences between Eastern and Western printing culture, providing valuable insights into the history and development of printing technologies.

Yoo Woo Sik, Ph.D. co-founder, President and Technical Officer at WaferMasters, Inc. holds MS and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from Kyoto University in Japan and an MBA degree from Western Connecticut State University in the U.S.A. He was a visiting scientist at the Materials Science and Engineering Department of Brown University from 1993 to 1994. He has been associated with The Institute of Humanities Studies at Kyungpook National University, Daegu, Korea, as a guest researcher since 2019. He has authored and co-authored more than 400 papers in the fields of semiconductor and numerous papers on the discovery of the world’s oldest metal-type printed book (The Song of Enlightenment (南明泉和尙頌證道歌) published in 1239 from the Goryeo dynasty of Korea) in Korean and English. He has been presenting his findings for public awareness and to promote the recognition, duly earned, by monumental world documents for the culture heritage of mankind.

It has been well known that the metal type printing technique was invented in the Goryeo (高麗) dynasty of Korea in the early 13th century. According to written history document, 28 copies of Sangjeongyemun (詳定古今禮文) were printed with movable metal type between 1234 and 1241. The original version of The Song of Enlightenment (南明泉和尙頌證道歌) with Commentaries by Buddhist Monk Nammyeong Cheon was also printed using metal type. Jikji (直指), the oldest extant metal printed book in the world, was printed in 1377 as recognized by the UNESCO Memory of the World program. Six nearly identical versions of an ancient printed book, The Song of Enlightenment, has been found in Korea since the 1920s. All of them have long been believed to be printed versions from the 13th to 16th centuries that used duplicated woodblocks of a metal-type-printed version from 1239 and its replica. Among Korean historians, there have been heated debates over the printing techniques and dates (or sequence) for the last 50 years. One particular version has long been suggested by collectors and researchers to be the original metal-type printed book. However, it was extremely hard to reach a consensus due to the subjective nature of ancient book examination by historians, bibliographers and conservators. To conclude this heated debate with firm scientific evidence, all six versions of The Song of Enlightenment were examined by image comparisons of individual characters, lines of characters, pages and borderlines to determine whether they are the identical versions, using the same woodblocks, or different versions from different techniques in different times. All claims raised against the possibility of metal type printing of the particular book (Gongin ( 空印) version, designated as a Korean treasure in 2012) were reviewed thoroughly in terms of paper, shapes of printed characters, printing characteristics and differences with other versions. Very clear circumstantial and physical evidence for metal type printing of the Gonin version was found. It was confirmed to have more than metal casting defects, including, the lightest ink tone of printed characters, and the smallest inked area (characters with thin strokes) among all six versions. The Gongin version was very likely printed using movable metal type in September 1239, as indicated in the imprint. It is definitely the world’s oldest extant book, printed using metal type in Korea in 1239, predating Jikji (1377) by 138 years and the 42-line Gutenberg Bible (~1455) by 216 years. The results of image-based biblio-forensic study, together with bibliographic history analysis, strongly point out the fact that the version of interest is the world’s oldest metal-type printed book, printed in September 1239. Evidence will be reported and discussed in detail. The computer aided, image analysis-based biblio-forensic study lead the closure of 50 year-long debates among Korean academics, and the discovery of the world’s oldest metal-type printed book to be recognized as the cultural heritage of mankind.

Ryu Hyun Guk is a professor at the National Tsukuba University of Technology in Japan. In the past 33 years ago, he has been studying “Modern Korean typeface design History,” “Change of Typefaces in the Era of Korean Mechanization,” “North Korean type printing history of Design History,” “Type Printing Cultural History of Korean Diaspora in Russia,” “Cultural history of Hangeul type printing among Korean Chinese in China,” “Joseon Dynasty Type Printing Culture History,” in Japan. Major books. In 2019, “The Practice of East Asian Typographer” Korea Publishing Research Institute for the 26th Korean Publishing Criticism Award, The Grand Prize. In 2017, “Galaxy of Hangeul Typeface (1945-2010)”, Sejong Excellent Academic Books (Culture Division), and the Korea Publishing Agency. In 2016, “Birth of Hangeul Typeface (1820-1945), Sejong Excellent Academic Books (History Division), and the Korea Publishing Agency. In 2015, the 22nd Korean Publishing Criticism Award, “Birth of Hangeul Typeface (1820-1945), Korea Publishing Research Institute, and many others.

In the late Joseon Dynasty, the Ming typeface was birthed in the heyday of printing technology. However, it is still being determined when, where, who, or what it was developed for because there was no research on the Ming type in Korea. This basic proposal has just been revealed in Korean printing history Today. To solve the above-unexplained problem, research and verification were conducted from 1664 to 1884 using 1,140 pieces of “Mun-jib (Anthology)” digital archive data stored in Korea, Japan, and the United States. “Gyoseo-gwan’s Ming-type books” were selected and classified into five periods. In the 200 years of the late Joseon Dynasty, the classification of the existing first half (1684-1723) and the second half (1724-1884) as the character classification method of the “Joseon Ming type Book List” (121 books) was too broad in the study of character change. Therefore, the following five periods were divided into five periods by empirical verification of the collection of literature published in Ming type. The first period was divided from 1684 to 1720. The second period was from 1720 to 1741. The third period was from 1741 to 1776. The fourth period was from 1776 to 1800. The fifth period was divided from 1800 to 1884. Additionally, 27 “Mun-jib” of representative literature were chosen from the “List of Representative Literature” found in different Ming types. Seven characters ‘十(Ten),’ ‘人(people),’ ‘山(mountain),’ ‘之(of),’ ‘也(also),’ ‘以(with),’ ‘心(heart)’ was added and compiled into a “Representative character analysis table” to compare and analyze representative characters in the time series to compare and analyze representative characters in the time series, seven characters were added and compiled into a “Representative character analysis table.” A seven-character usual character analysis policy was established, and a comparative analysis was conducted. As mentioned above, we extracted the characteristics of the constituent elements of characters, such as changes in line thickness, the angle and length of strokes, the relationship between strokes and strokes, and the division ratio between vertical and horizontal strokes. We judged whether the character shape had been improved. Could you bring out the number of print development? As a result, it is a discovery that the development of five types produced in the late Joseon Dynasty and two types made by individuals have been confirmed. As mentioned above, the late Joseon Dynasty was a peak period when printing technology was concentrated, and it is new knowledge that the Ming type was birthed here.

Sun Ming Yuan received his Ph.D. in design from the Faculty of Arts and Engineering at Kyushu University in Japan in 2008. From 2009 to 2019, he held the position of associate professor at the School of Arts at Northwestern University in China, before assuming his current role as an associate professor at the School of Arts and Design at Polytechnic University of Macau in 2019. Sun Mimngyuan’s research interests are primarily focused on graphic design and the history of movable type. His scholarly contributions are notable, having published over twenty academic papers and research reports in China, Japan, Korea, and other regions since 2004. Among his representative works are “The Cultural History of Movable Type Printing” (co-author), “A Study of Jujin Imitation Song Style” (monograph), “A Study of the Development History of Modern Chinese Graphic Design and Typography: 1805-1949” (monograph), and “Between the Square and the Square - An Anthology of Chinese Character Typography” and “Keizosuke Sato” (compilation and translation).

Juzhen Imitation Song Typeface is highly recognizable and aesthetically pleasing, and is widely considered one of the most successful metal movable typefaces. It is also the origin of the Imitation Song Typeface (known as “soutyoutai” in Japan) in both China and Japan. However, despite its significant influence, research on Juzhen Imitation Song Typeface has been extremely limited, and there are still many crucial details that need to be explored. These seemingly insignificant details are indispensable for summarizing the font development experience and studying the evolution of the font. The research study is based on the history of printing fonts and the specific era, and aims to clarify important issues such as the development process, the required technical skills for producing molds, the composition of the character family of the Juzhen Imitation Song Typeface, and how it was used and disseminated, particularly in Japan.” Juzhen Imitation Song Typeface was developed by Ding Sanzai and other intellectuals who were dedicated to preserving traditional historical concepts in typography. By creating this typeface, they aimed to revive the traditional Chinese aesthetic spirit and express the essence of Chinese culture. The typeface combined the traditional Chinese engraving and printing techniques with new movable type technology, opening up a new era of metal movable typeface. Its significant contributions to the development of the Imitation Song Typeface system have earned it a milestone position in the East Asian Chinese character culture circle.

David Redman is an actor, scriptwriter, director and producer from Scugog Island, Ontario, Canada. David is known for his work on the award-winning documentary, “Dancing with Jikji” (Jikji Code) and the History Channel’s docu-series, ‘The Palate of the City: Busan’. He is currently on leave from his position at SeoKyeong University and is the CEO of Ten O’clock Inc. David became interested in movable metal print when he realized no one could read his handwriting.

“Dancing with Jikji” (Jikji Code) is a feature documentary that uses early print history as a vehicle to explore the questions of Eurocentrism and its consequence, the ancient cultural exchanges between East & West, and the meaning of the truth in history. Despite Jikji being recognized by UNESCO as the world’s oldest movable metal type book, the main character, David Redman finds the staff of the French National Library have no knowledge of Jikji housed in the institution. Realizing Eurocentrism is at play, he sets off on a journey of discovery that includes his own learned Eurocentric view of history. The film’s main findings include proof of the cultural exchange between Vatican’s monks to Korea prior to 1333, 14th century Vatican monk’s letters that mention print, a Roman Catholic Archbishop in Beijing in the 13th century, a movable metal type printer in Avignon prior to Gutenberg and a reference of an example of printed money in Europe in the early 14th century. The author is currently proposing a new documentary to explore questions about ‘The Song of Enlightenment:’ Is the Gongin Version the oldest extant movable metal print book? Why have some historians not looked at this question seriously, especially in Korea? Did this early 13th century technology influence European developments two centuries later? The proposed documentary would follow the controversy from the 8th AAS-in-Asia Conference in Daegu, Korea and as “The Song of Enlightenment” gains more interest world-wide. This project will take a step further into the exploration of Eurocentrism and Ethnocentrism as well as key reasons why people often deny new facts. These key reasons of denial may provide new insight into Eurocentrism and Ethnocentrism.