| Abstract
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In 1600, Japan-based Jesuits printed a moveable-type edition of the Wakan rōeishū (The Collection of Japanese and Chinese resonant verse), a bilingual anthology of classical Japanese and Chinese poetry that had long been an emblem of Japan’s literary world. Made to educate Japanese and foreigners alike in the scripts, languages, and literatures of Japan, the Amakusa Rōeishū was a component of an educational and evangelizing mission. Although it was neither translated into European languages nor widely circulated, the Amakusa Rōeishū represents an alternative to prevailing conceptions of world literature in its capacity to invite and challenge readers to work through its (decreasingly) foreign systems of meaning. By redesigning the anthology’s title page, reediting its contents, and repositioning it on a multilingual and multidirectional curriculum, Jesuit printers and teachers invited an incommensurate ecumene of readers to work through a singular text from a plurality of directions. In 1600, Japan-based Jesuits printed a moveable-type edition of the Wakan rōeishū (The Collection of Japanese and Chinese resonant verse), a bilingual anthology of classical Japanese and Chinese poetry that had long been an emblem of Japan’s literary world. Made to educate Japanese and foreigners alike in the scripts, languages, and literatures of Japan, the Amakusa Rōeishū was a component of an educational and evangelizing mission. Although it was neither translated into European languages nor widely circulated, the Amakusa Rōeishū represents an alternative to prevailing conceptions of world literature in its capacity to invite and challenge readers to work through its (decreasingly) foreign systems of meaning. By redesigning the anthology’s title page, reediting its contents, and repositioning it on a multilingual and multidirectional curriculum, Jesuit printers and teachers invited an incommensurate ecumene of readers to work through a singular text from a plurality of directions.
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