The Oldest Extant Paper in Japan and the Oldest Extant Paper Written in Japan

Abstract

The “oldest paper” that exists in Japan, that is, the “Li Bai Document （Draft of a letter by Li Bai）” written in China in 328, and the “oldest paper written in Japan （615）”, that is, Prince Shotoku’s autograph “Hokke gisho （Commentary on The Lotus Sutra）”, those two cultural heritages are explained in this paper.