Throwback Thursday: Genealogy in the 13th Century

I know I normally cover software for Throwback Thursday, but let’s go back 8-9 centuries to 12th-13th Century Japan. Hilde De Weerdt, a Professor of Chinese and Early Modern Global History at KU Leuven (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven) – a Catholic research university located in Leuven, Belgium, posted this on BlueSky. It’s a collection of images from Waseda University (a research university in Tokyo, Japan), and one of them is a print from the “Book of Documents” showing a genealogical table from the 12th or 13th century.

BlueSky, along with Mastodon and Threads, is a newer social media platform that many are leaving Twitter for. There is a thriving genealogy/genealogist community on BlueSky, Mastodon, and Threads, but that’s for another post.

Here’s the documents, embedded at BlueSky:

Spotted in and around Waseda U this week: 1. 12-13th C Song illustrated print of the Book of Documents (showing genealogical table), 2. Song annotated print of the same (with cross-references), 3. rubbing of a genealogical stele, 4. 13th c pocket encyclopedia recently sold like 1 by vol. #medieval

[image or embed]

— Hilde De Weerdt (@hildedw.bsky.social) November 12, 2024 at 9:34 PM

Hilde is also a senior researcher at the International Institute of Social History: Amsterdam, NL.