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context: literature > Edo
Edo changes
This was a time of widening general literacy, with lots of leisure time for townspeople. Lending libraries become common.
Before 1590, Buddhist temples had a near monopoly on printing, and most of the books they issued were religious in nature, but within a century more than 10,000 works had been printed. For a brief period in the first half of the seventeenth century, movable type was employed in printing, the technology having been introduced to Japan via Korea and, simultaneously, by Portugese missionaries. However, this vogue soon gave way to woodblock printing, which was less costly.