is an early ninth century Buddhist text. It is best known as a valuable resource for

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

historical linguistics Historical linguistics, also termed diachronic linguistics, is the scientific study of language change over time. Principal concerns of historical linguistics include: # to describe and account for observed changes in particular languages # ...

as well as Buddhist history.Nihon Koten Bungaku Daijiten Henshū Iinkai (1983:1309)Yoshida (2001:31, 135)

Manuscript

''Tōdaiji Fujumonkō'' was composed sometime between 796 and 830. It was written on the reverse side of and is one volume in length. The compiler is unknown, but speculated to have been a priest belonging to the

Dharma character school Dharma (; sa, धर्म, dharma, ; pi, dhamma, italic=yes) is a key concept with multiple meanings in Indian religions, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism and others. Although there is no direct single-word translation for ''d ...

due to the large usage of related vocabulary. The original manuscript did not contain a title, but one was later added. In 1939, the manuscript owner published a two-volume

collotype Collotype is a gelatin-based photographic printing process invented by Alphonse Poitevin in 1855 to print images in a wide variety of tones without the need for halftone screens. The majority of collotypes were produced between the 1870s and 1 ...

facsimile reproduction, one for the front and the other for the back. The original manuscript was designated as a

National Treasure of Japan Some of the National Treasures of Japan A is the most precious of Japan's Tangible Cultural Properties, as determined and designated by the Agency for Cultural Affairs (a special body of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Scien ...

on July 4, 1938, but removed due to its destruction on April 14, 1945 in the fires resulting from the

war War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

. Only

facsimiles A facsimile (from Latin ''fac simile'', "to make alike") is a copy or reproduction of an old book, manuscript, map, art print, or other item of historical value that is as true to the original source as possible. It differs from other forms of r ...

remain.

The text is 396 lines in length. It is primarily a collection of prayers recorded at Buddhist memorial services.

Linguistics

''Tōdaiji Fujumonkō'' is primarily important as a resource for early

Early Middle Japanese is a stage of the Japanese language between 794 and 1185, which is known as the Heian Period(). The successor to Old Japanese(), it is also known as Late Old Japanese. However, the term "Early Middle Japanese" is preferred, as it is closer to L ...

. It is the oldest example of text written in

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 ...

with

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 ...

annotations. In addition, it exhibits many elements of

Old Japanese is the oldest attested stage of the Japanese language, recorded in documents from the Nara period (8th century). It became Early Middle Japanese in the succeeding Heian period, but the precise delimitation of the stages is controversial. Old Jap ...

grammar and vocabulary and maintains the phonetic distinction between ''/ko₁/'' and ''/ko₂/''. It also contains accounts in several

dialects The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a ...

.Omodaka (1967:881-882)

Notes

References

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Todaiji Fujumonko Late Old Japanese texts Japanese language Japanese Buddhist texts Buddhism in the Heian period Old National Treasures of Japan 9th-century Japanese literature

Manuscript

Contents

Linguistics

Notes

References