The ''Kokushi Daijiten'' (国史大辞典 literally "Great Dictionary of National History") all no.: REF DS 833 .K64, (Vol. 1)is a large, general history dictionary of

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

published by the

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

-based company Yoshikawa Kobunkan. The original edition consisted of six volumes and was published in 1927. The current edition was written and released over a period of 18 years, beginning in 1979 and ending in 1997.

General

The ''Kokushi Daijiten'' consists of a total of 14 volumes of entries in addition to three index volumes (numbered as vol. 15 upper, middle, and lower). A remarkable feature of the dictionary is the inclusion of large, high-quality glossy

color Color (American English) or colour (British English) is the visual perceptual property deriving from the spectrum of light interacting with the photoreceptor cells of the eyes. Color categories and physical specifications of color are assoc ...

plates and

map A map is a symbolic depiction emphasizing relationships between elements of some space, such as objects, regions, or themes. Many maps are static, fixed to paper or some other durable medium, while others are dynamic or interactive. Although ...

s in addition to

black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white ...

and

white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White o ...

illustrations that accompany entries in the text.

Organization

The dictionary is organized following the Japanese phonetic syllabary beginning with "a", as opposed to the

iroha The is a Japanese poem. Originally the poem was attributed to the founder of the Shingon Esoteric sect of Buddhism in Japan, Kūkai, but more modern research has found the date of composition to be later in the Heian period (794–1179). Th ...

order. Entries are titled in

hiragana is a Japanese syllabary, part of the Japanese writing system, along with ''katakana'' as well as ''kanji''. It is a phonetic lettering system. The word ''hiragana'' literally means "flowing" or "simple" kana ("simple" originally as contrast ...

katakana is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji and in some cases the Latin script (known as rōmaji). The word ''katakana'' means "fragmentary kana", as the katakana characters are derived f ...

as appropriate, then followed by

kanji are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese ...

or Western letters when applicable. Each entry is signed by its author, usually an academic expert in a related field.

Index

The three-volume index is separated by type of entry. The first ("upper") volume contains a supplement containing entries not included in the writing of the original volumes, as well as indexes for historical events (''shiryô'') and place names (''chimei''). The second volume is an index of people's names (''jinmei''), and volume three is an index for "topics" (''jikô''). Each index entry (which are listed in kanji) contains the volume number, page, and line on which the term appears, as well as the title of the entry under which it appears.

Reception

One criticism often leveled against the ''Kokushi Daijiten'' is that since it was written over the course of nearly twenty years and released volume by volume in syllabary order, some information from the early volumes has already become outdated. It is generally considered on the slightly

conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

side, which makes it less imaginative than its competitors, such as the Heibonsha ''Nihonshi Daijiten'', but by the same token, factually reliable.

References

*''Kokushi daijiten''. 15 vols. Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kobunkan, 1979-1997. *http://www.columbia.edu/~hds2/BIB95/ch18.htm {{Dictionaries of Japanese Japanese dictionaries 1927 in Japan 1927 non-fiction books