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A historiated illuminated initial

In a written or published work, an initial is a letter at the beginning of a work, a chapter, or a paragraph that is larger than the rest of the text. The word is derived from the Latin initialis, which means standing at the beginning. An initial often is several lines in height and in older books or manuscripts, sometimes ornately decorated.

In illuminated manuscripts, initials with images inside them, such as those illustrated here, are known as historiated initials. They were an invention of the Insular art of the British Isles in the eighth century. Initials containing, typically, plant-form spirals with small figures of animals or humans that do not represent a specific person or scene are known as "inhabited" initials. Certain important initials, such as the B of Beatus vir ... at the opening of Psalm 1 at the start of a vulgate Latin psalter, could occupy a whole page of a manuscript.

These specific initials, in an illuminated manuscript, also were called Initiums.

Brief history of the initial[link]

A set of sixteenth-century initial capitals, which is missing a few letters

The classical tradition was late to use capital letters for initials at all; in surviving Roman texts it often is difficult even to separate the words as spacing was not used either. In the Late Antique period both came into in common use in Italy, the initials usually were set in the left margin (as in the third example below), as though to cut them off from the rest of the text, and about twice as tall as the other letters. The radical innovation of insular manuscripts was to make initials much larger, not indented, and for the letters immediately following the initial also to be larger, but diminishing in size (called the "diminuendo" effect, after the musical notation). Subsequently they became larger still, coloured, and penetrated farther and farther into the rest of the text, until the whole page might be taken over.

The decoration of insular initials, especially large ones, was generally abstract and geometrical, or featured animals in patterns. Historiated initials were an Insular invention, but did not come into their own until the later developments of Ottonian art, Anglo-Saxon art, and the Romanesque style in particular. After this period, in Gothic art large paintings of scenes tended to go in rectangular framed spaces, and the initial, although often still historiated, tended to become smaller again.

In the very early history of printing the typesetters would leave blank the necessary space, so that the initials could be added later by a scribe or miniature painter. Later initials were printed using separate blocks in woodcut or metalcut techniques.

• 

  In principio from the start of the Gospel of John 9th century

• 

  Greek biblical text from Papyrus 46, of c. 200, with no initials, punctuation, and barely spaces between words

• 

  5th century Codex Alexandrinus with initials in left margin

• 

  "Diminuendo" effect in the first letters after this initial from the Cathach of St. Columba (Irish, seventh century)

• 

  One of thousands of smaller decorated initials from the Book of Kells

• 

  Large initial L from a Romanesque Bible

• 

  Mainz Psalter, printed in 1457 by Johannes Gutenberg - the main initial and border are woodcut, as may be the smaller red initials; the rest of the lettering is metal movable type

• 

  Fraktur

Types of initials[link]

The initials are morphologically classified: the rubricated letter (red); the epigraphic letter, imitating ancient Roman majuscules; the figurated initial (usually in miniatures); the historiated initial, that gives spatial support to scenes of a narrative character; etc.

The initial may sit on the same baseline as the first line of text, at the same margin, as it does here. This is the easiest to typeset on a computer, including in HTML. An example follows:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

Alternatively, the initial may be in the left margin, with the text indented, as shown here. In word processors and HTML, this may be implemented using a table with two cells, one for the initial and one for the rest of the text. The difference between this and a true drop cap may be seen when the text extends below the initial. For example:

L

orem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

With a drop cap, the initial sits within the margins and runs several lines deep into the paragraph, indenting some normal-sized text in these lines. This keeps the left and top margins of the paragraph flush.

In modern computer browsers, this may be achieved with a combination of HTML and CSS by using the float: left; setting. A CSS-only solution alternatively can use the :first-letter pseudo-element. An example of this format is the following paragraph:

L

orem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

In some older manuscripts, the first letter of normal sized text after a drop cap also would be capitalized, as may be seen in the Mainz Psalter above, and in the original 1609 printing of Shakespeare's sonnets. This evokes the handwritten "diminuendo" style of gradually reducing the text size over the course of the first line. This style now is rare, except in newspapers.

See also[link]

Look up initial in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Monogram
• Typography

Further reading[link]

• Stiebner, Erhardt D. & Dieter Urban. Initials and Decorative Alphabets. Poole, England: Blandford Press, 1985. ISBN 0-7137-1640-1

External links[link]

• (German) Typolis
• (Dutch) Initials and Ornaments
• (English) Alphabet & Letter Images

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Keiichi Tsuchiya

In 2008, as Executive Advisor of ARTA
Nationality	Japanese
24 Hours of Le Mans career
Participating years	1994-2000
Teams	Team Kunimitsu Honda, Team Lark McLaren, Toyota Team Europe, TV Asahi Team Dragon
Best finish	2nd (1999)
Class wins	2 (1995, 1999)

Keiichi Tsuchiya (土屋 圭市, Tsuchiya Keiichi^?, born January 30, 1956, Tōmi, Nagano, Japan) is a professional race car driver. He is also known as the "Drift King" (or Dorikin (ドリキン)) for his nontraditional use of drifting in non-drifting racing events and his role in popularizing drifting as a motorsport. He is also known for touge (mountain pass) driving.

The car he drives, a Toyota AE86 Sprinter Trueno, has become one of the most popular sports cars; the car is also known as "Hachi-Roku" in Japan (hachi-roku meaning "eight six"); his car is also called "The Little Hachi that could." A video known as Pluspy documents Tsuchiya's touge driving with his AE86. He also is a consultant for one of the popular comic books, "Initial D". "Bunta" (Takumi's dad) is a character which describes him.

Biography[link]

Tsuchiya started his career through the Fuji Freshman series in 1977. Unlike many drivers who came from wealthy families or motorsport backgrounds, he honed his skills from street racing and became an underground legend.

Racing career[link]

National championships

He would continue to take part in the Japanese Formula Three Championship, Japanese Touring Car Championship (JTCC), the latter while driving a Nissan Skyline GT-R (previously in the Cosmo Oil Sierra Cosworth) in the Group A championships and later a Honda Civic in the Supertouring car championships. ^[1]

Le Mans

He went on to score a class win and an 8th place overall at the 1995 24 Hours of Le Mans in a Honda NSX. In 1999 of the same race, this time in a Toyota GT-One, during the last hour while co-driver Ukyo Katayama was building up pace to the leading BMW V12 LMR he was forced into the grass by a backmarker privateer's BMW LMP, blowing the tire out. They survived the ordeal and went onto score the fastest lap but were forced to settle for second.

NASCAR

He has raced in NASCAR-sanctioned exhibition races at Suzuka Circuit (Suzuka Thunder 100) and at Twin Ring Motegi Superspeedway for the 1998 NASCAR-sanctioned exhibition and 1999 NASCAR Grand National Division, AutoZone West Series races at the circuit, both named the Coca-Cola 500K.

Drifting career[link]

When Tsuchiya was a freshman in circuit racing, he got his racing license suspended because of the illegal racing he was still doing. In the movie series Shuto Kousoku Trial, he advised street racers to leave the illegal racing scene if they want to become involved with professional racing. ^[2]

After his retirement[link]

After his retirement, he remained in racing and is now an official Drift Muscle(He Quit D1 in January 2011) judge and was Team Director for both GT500 (for one year) and GT300 Class of ARTA JGTC Team until the team disbanded their GT300 operation at the end of the 2005 season. He owned the aftermarket suspension company Kei Office until he sold the business in 2005. His trademark color is jade green which appears on his overalls and helmet and is the adopted color of the company he used to own, Kei Office. It was also the color of the D1 Grand Prix Kei Office S15 Silvia of driver and employee Yasuyuki Kazama who also wears a suit similar in pattern.

He also hosts the video magazine "Best Motoring" which features road tests of new Japanese cars including a special section called "Hot Version" which focuses on performance-modified cars. He is a guest presenter in Video Option, a monthly video magazine, similar to the Hot Version which also regularly covers the D1GP and its sister video magazine Drift Tengoku which deals purely with drifting.

He has been an editorial supervisor on the televised anime Initial D and Wangan Midnight. He appeared in episode 23 of Initial D First Stage as a special guest. He also appeared in the semi biographical film Shuto Kousoku Trial 2,3,4,5 and was also featured in the Super GT magazine show in Japan. His life in driving is parallel to that of the Initial D main character, Takumi, as both of them started exploring their local touge while doing regular deliveries for their family businesses. In Initial D 1st Stage episode 23, he was alluded to when Takumi's father was having a conversation on the phone with someone referred to as "Mr. Tsuchiya" who addressed Takumi's father as "Bunta," adding that the memories of his drifting still "scared the shit" out of him. In the Initial D 3rd Stage, the color can also be seen on the overalls and helmet of the sportsbike rider who overtook Takumi as he was en route to an initiation battle with Ryosuke Takahashi. The color of Tomo's racing suit from the Initial D 4th Stage is jade green and has a similar pattern to Tsuchiya's suit. Lastly, Keiichi himself is featured in one episode of Initial D right before the battle with Ryosuke Takahashi when he calls Bunta (Takumi's father) to inquire about the young man. Here he is shown wearing a similar race suit design.

He also made an appearance opposite Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson in a Motorworld in Japan special showing drifting competition in the late 1980s in Japan.

After 1995, he sometimes appeared as a Formula One guest commentator in Japanese Fuji TV. He now owns a new suspension company called DG5.

In 2006, he made a cameo as a fisherman in the movie The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift in which he was also stunt coordinator and stunt man. Although he only had two lines, it is considered to be an inside joke to the drift racing community.

AE86 Specs[link]

Quotes[link]

• "I drift not because it is a quicker way around a corner but the most exciting way."

• "Speed isn't everything; you gotta look cool on the touge too."

• "This is fun! I wish that Toyota could make cars like this again!" (on the Toyota AE86)

• "Yeah! How come this car gets me fired up all the time?" After winning a downhill touge against a Skyline R34 with the Toyota AE86^[3]

• "カウンターステアが遅いんだな？ (Countersteer is late, huh?)" (from The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, dubbed as "You call that drifting?")

• "Men with guts attack those corners!"^[3] - it was a reply to Nobuteru Taniguchi who, driving a more powerful car on the touge, said " I'll get away with turbo power on the straights."

• "The most important thing is balance." (Tsuchiya says this word in every race action.)

• "There's tension on the track; now you see how hard it is. You may be fastest on the street but, unless you know the track, you're not good enough to sit behind the wheel." (Tsuchiya speaking to Shikiba, subtitled portion, Shuto Kusokou Trial MAX)

• "I'm afraid that if I raced you on the street I'd push you to your death." (Tsuchiya speaks to Takahiro Yamanaka, subtitled portion, Shuto Kusokou Trial 2)

• "What is power without control?"

• "It's so fast it will make a dead man scream" (Tsuchiya describing the performance of the Mines R34 Skyline)

• "This is a Cefiro!" (Tsuchiya negatively describing the performance of the V35 Skyline)

• "The important thing is to keep trying"

Career results[link]

• 1977 Debut in Fuji Freshman series.
• 1977-1984 Ran selected entries in All Japan Touring Car championship.
• 1984 Fuji Freshman series race (Toyota AE86)= 6 wins
• 1985 All Japan Touring Car championship (Toyota AE86) 1st in Class 3
• 1986 Corolla Sprinter Cup-2 podium places
• 1987 All Japan Touring Car championship (Honda Civic) -1 win
• 1988 Toyota Cup-1st overall
  • All Japan Touring Car championship (BMW E30) -3rd in Class 2
• Macau Guia race (BMW M3) -4th overall
• 1989 All Japan F3 championship
  • All Japan Touring Car championship (Ford Sierra Cosworth) -1 win
• 1990 All Japan Touring Car championship (Ford Sierra Cosworth)
  • Macau Guia race (Ford Sierra Cosworth)
  • New Zealand Touring Car series (Toyota)
• 1991 All Japan F3 championship (Ralt-Mugen)-10th overall
  • All Japan Touring Car championship (Nissan Skyline GT-R) -5th overall
• 1992 All Japan Touring Car championship (Nissan Skyline GT-R)
• 1993 All Japan Touring Car championship (Taisan Nissan Skyline GT-R) -1 win
  • Japan Endurance series (Honda Prelude) -2nd Tsukuba 12 Hours
• 1994 All Japan GT championship (Porsche 911T) -1 win
  • All Japan Touring Car championship (Honda Civic)
  • Suzuka 1000 km (Porsche 911T) -1st in class, 2nd overall
  • Le Mans 24 Hours (Honda NSX) -18th overall
• 1995 All Japan GT championship (Porsche911TRSR)
  • All Japan Touring Car championship (Honda Civic)
  • Suzuka 1000 km (Honda NSX) -5th overall
  • Tokachi 12 Hours (Honda NSX) -1st overall
  • Le Mans 24 Hours (Honda NSX) -1st in class
• 1996 All Japan GT championship (Honda NSX) -13th overall
  • Entered NASCAR Thunder Special race at Suzuka
  • Le mans 24 Hours (Honda NSX) -3rd in class
• 1997 All Japan GT championship (Porsche 911/Dodge Viper)
  • Fuji InterTec race (Toyota Chaser)
  • Suzuka 1000 km (Lark McLaren F1 GTR) -9th overall
  • Entered NASCAR Thunder Special race at Suzuka
  • Le Mans 24 Hours (Lark McLaren F1 GTR) -qualified 10th, retired from race
• 1998 All Japan Touring Car championship (Toyota Chaser) -7th overall
  • All Japan GT championship (Toyota Supra) -8th overall
  • Le Mans 24 Hours (Toyota GT-One) -9th overall
  • NASCAR at the California Speedway.
• 1999 Japan Touring Car Championship (Advan Altezza Touring car).
  • Le Mans 24 Hours (Toyota GT-One) -2nd overall
• 2000 Le Mans 24 Hours (Panoz LMP-1 Roadster-S) -8th overall
• 2000-2003 he joined team ARTA racing an NSX once again in the All Japan GT championship.
• 2004-2005 studied in Australia to complete inter-2 course.

References[link]

1. ^ http://driftjapan.com/blog/drivers/keiichi-drift-king-tsuchiya/
2. ^ Books LLC, Books LLC (2010). Drifting Series: D1 Grand Prix, Formula D, Red Bull Drifting World Championship, Keiichi Tsuchiya, Nz Drift Series, D1nz, Option, Video Option. Drifting Series. General Books LLC. ISBN 9781158069118. 
3. ^ ^{a b} "Touge Showdown 2 - AE86 vs Skyline GT-R - Hot Version International" on YouTube

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Keiichi Tsuchiya

• (Japanese) Official site
• IMDb profile
• AsianAthlete.com profile
• (Japanese) Bridgestone Automobile Radio
• Best Motoring International
• Drift Japan » Keiichi 'Drift King' Tsuchiya - Driver Profile and Overview