Amino Yoshihiko’s Visualization of History

Publication Mediaand a Historian in the 1980s

Abstract

　In the publishing world in the 1980s, as the number of publications

increased, visual expression came to be more pronounced in both magazines

and books. How did this change in publishing media affect the content of the

publications and their authors? By focusing on the case of Amino Yoshihiko

（1928-2004）―a historian on the Japanese Middle Ages―this article

examines the relationship between published media in the 1980s and the

visualization of history. In particular, it explores the extent to which Amino’s

commitment to visualizing history was of his own accord.

　　This article analyzes publications by Amino from the 1980s to elucidate

how his history books were connected with visual expression in the process of

their production. After receiving opportunities to write in a PR magazine pub

lished by a company, he began to write on the subject of color and costume

in history. Afterward, he acquired knowledge on historical paintings while

proofreading the Pictopedia of Everyday Life in Medieval Japan, New Edition（

1984）, and he made the best use of this experience to write his own book

The Grotesque Emperor（ 1986）, which became one of his primary works.

After writing The Grotesque Emperor, he collaborated with a painter to

produce a picture book for children and participated in two large-scale

projects featuring visual expression. This article reveals that although he was

reluctant to commit to the work of visualizing history initially, he deepened

his understanding of the subject through various publishing projects.

Additionally, the publishing projects that he participated in grew in scale and

required more initiative. This article also found that Amino collaborated with

editors as well as at times a painter to complete all of his works, as early as

the proposal stage.