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Wa is the oldest name of Japan attested in foreign sources. Chinese and Korean scribes regularly used the Chinese character 倭; 'submissive'', 'distant'', 'dwarf' to refer to the inhabitants of the Wa kingdoms on Kyushu c. the 2nd century CE, as well as the ancient Yamato kingdom, until the 8th century, when the Japanese replaced the character with 和, wa, 'harmony', 'peace', 'balance'.
The word Japan is an exonym, and is used by many languages. The Japanese names for Japan are Nihon and Nippon. They are both written in Japanese using the kanji 日本.
The Dai Kan-Wa Jiten is a Japanese dictionary of kanji compiled by Tetsuji Morohashi. Remarkable for its comprehensiveness and size, Morohashi's dictionary contains over 50,000 character entries and 530,000 compound words. Haruo Shirane (2003:15) said: "This is the definitive dictionary of the Chinese characters and one of the great dictionaries of the world."
Japanese dictionaries have a history that began over 1300 years ago when Japanese Buddhist priests, who wanted to understand Chinese sutras, adapted Chinese character dictionaries. Present-day Japanese lexicographers are exploring computerized editing and electronic dictionaries. According to Nakao Keisuke (中尾啓介):
It has often been said that dictionary publishing in Japan is active and prosperous, that Japanese people are well provided for with reference tools, and that lexicography here, in practice as well as in research, has produced a number of valuable reference books together with voluminous academic studies. (1998:35)
The Yayoi people were an ancient ethnicity that lived in the Japanese archipelago during the Yayoi period and are characterized through Yayoi material culture. Some argue for an earlier start of the Yayoi period, between 1000 and 800 BCE, but this date is controversial. The people of the Yayoi culture are regarded as the spreaders of agriculture and the Japonic languages throughout the whole archipelago, and were characterized by both local Jōmon hunter-gatherers and Mainland Asian migrant ancestries.
The Yupian is a c. 543 Chinese dictionary edited by Gu Yewang during the Liang dynasty. It arranges 12,158 character entries under 542 radicals, which differ somewhat from the original 540 in the Shuowen Jiezi. Each character entry gives a fanqie pronunciation gloss and a definition, with occasional annotation.
The Iroha Jiruishō is a 12th-century Japanese dictionary of Kanji. It was the first Heian Period dictionary to collate characters by pronunciation rather than by logographic radical or word meaning.
The Wamyō ruijushō or Wamyō ruijūshō is a 938 CE Japanese dictionary of Chinese characters. The Heian period scholar Minamoto no Shitagō began compilation in 934, at the request of Emperor Daigo's daughter. This Wamyō ruijushō title is abbreviated as Wamyōshō, and has graphic variants of 和名類聚抄 with wa和 "harmony; Japan" for wa倭 "dwarf; Japan" and 倭名類聚鈔 with shō鈔 "copy; summarize" for shō抄 "copy; annotate".
The Tenrei banshō meigi or Tenrei banshō myōgi is the oldest extant Japanese dictionary of Chinese characters. The title is also written 篆隷万象名義 with the modern graphic variant ban for ban.
The Shinsen Jikyō is the first Japanese dictionary containing native kun'yomi "Japanese readings" of Chinese characters. The title is also written 新選字鏡 with the graphic variant sen for sen.
The Ruiju myōgishō, alternatively misread as Ruijū myōgishō, is a Japanese dictionary from the late Heian Period. The title, sometimes abbreviated as Myōgishō, combines the ruiju from the Wamyō Ruijushō and the myōgi from the Tenrei Banshō Myōgi. Additional Buddhist titles, like Sanbō ruiju myōgishō (三宝類聚名義抄), use the word sanbō because the text was divided into butsu, hō, and sō sections.
The Jikyōshū was a circa 1245 CE Japanese dictionary of Chinese characters. The "Mirror of Characters" title echoes the Shinsen Jikyō, and the internal organization closely follows the Ruiju Myōgishō.
The Kagakushū, alternatively read as Gegakushū, was a 1444 Japanese dictionary of Chinese characters arranged into semantic headings. The title alludes to Confucius' self-description in the Lunyu: 下学而上達 "My studies lie low, and my penetration rises high."
The Rakuyōshū, rendered on the cover as Racvyoxyv, was a 1598 Japanese dictionary of kanji "Chinese characters" and compounds in three parts. The Jesuit Mission Press published it at Nagasaki along with other early Japanese language reference works, such as the 1603 Nippo Jisho Japanese–Portuguese dictionary. The Rakuyōshū, also known as the Rakuyoshu or Rakuyôshû, is notable as the first dictionary to separate kanji readings between Chinese loanword on and native Japanese kun.
Yamato-damashii or Yamato-gokoro is a Japanese language term for the cultural values and characteristics of the Japanese people. The phrase was coined in the Heian period to describe the indigenous Japanese 'spirit' or cultural values as opposed to cultural values of foreign nations such as those identified through contact with Tang dynasty China. Later, a qualitative contrast between Japanese and Chinese spirit was elicited from the term. Edo period writers and samurai used it to augment and support the Bushido concept of honor and valor. English translations of Yamato-damashii include the "Japanese spirit", "Japanese soul", "Yamato spirit", and "The Soul of Old Japan". Lafcadio Hearn mentions the latter in connection with Shinto.
For this national type of moral character was invented the name Yamato-damashi , — the Soul of Yamato , — the appellation of the old province of Yamato, seat of the early emperors, being figuratively used for the entire country. We might correctly, though less literally, interpret the expression Yamato-damashi as "The Soul of Old Japan". (1904:177)
Wadōkaichin (和同開珎), also romanized as Wadō-kaichin or called Wadō-kaihō, is the oldest official Japanese coinage, first mentioned for 29 August 708 on order of Empress Genmei. It was long considered to be the first type of coin produced in Japan. Analyses of several findings of Fuhon-sen (富夲銭) in Asuka have shown that those coins were manufactured from 683.
In the Japanese writing system kana ligatures are ligatures in the kana writing system, both hiragana and katakana. Kana such as koto and shite are not kana ligatures, but polysyllabic kana.
San of Wa (讃) was a king of Wa in the first half of the 5th century. 。
Chin of Wa (倭珍), date of birth and death unknown) was a king of Wa in the early 5th century. He was also known as Wa Ochin (倭王珍).
Sai of Wa (済) was a king of Wa in the middle of the 5th century. He was also known as Wa Osai.
References
- ↑ Chen Liwei 陳力衛. (1996). "倭玉篇". In Nihon jisho jiten 日本辞書辞典 (The Encyclopedia of Dictionaries Published in Japan), Okimori Takuya 沖森卓也, et al., eds. Tokyo: Ōfū. ISBN 4-273-02890-5. p. 281.
- ↑ Bailey, Don Clifford. (1960). "Early Japanese Lexicography". Monumenta Nipponica 16:1–52. p.31.
