The is a discontinued series of
encyclopedia
An encyclopedia is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge, either general or special, in a particular field or discipline. Encyclopedias are divided into article (publishing), articles or entries that are arranged Alp ...
of
Japan
Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
and the
Japanese people
are an East Asian ethnic group native to the Japanese archipelago. Japanese people constitute 97.4% of the population of the country of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 125 million people are of Japanese descent, making them list of contempora ...
, first published by
Shogakukan
is a Japanese publisher of comics, magazines, light novels, dictionaries, literature, non-fiction, home media, and other media in Japan.
Shogakukan founded Shueisha, which also founded Hakusensha. These are three separate companies, but ...
from 1984 to 1989 in 25 volumes.
After 10 years of preparation, over 130,000 entries and 500,000 indexes were organized in alphabetical order in more than 23,000 pages. The most recent version, 1994, has 26 volumes, including the separate volumes of indexes and an auxiliary. The encyclopedia is currently out of print.
Shogakukan and Heibonsha
When it was founded in 1922, Shogakukan specialized in study books and magazines for elementary school students. According to its websites, published in 1962 was the first encyclopedia from Shogakukan. Since then, Shogakukan has continuously published encyclopedias: in 1965, in 1967, in 1970, and in 1972 among others. Shogakukan's ''Encyclopedia Nipponica'' has been one of the major Japanese encyclopedias. The other major encyclopedia, ''
World Encyclopedia'' (), was published from
Heibonsha. Since the foundation in 1914, Heibonsha has put emphasis on encyclopedias. Currently, ''World Encyclopedia'' holds three editions: ''World Encyclopedia'', ''World Encyclopedia'' on DVD, and the online edition called ''Netto de hyakka''.
Topics
Over 6,000 authorities contributed articles to the ''Encyclopedia Nipponica''. The topics ranges from
social sciences
Social science (often rendered in the plural as the social sciences) is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of society, societies and the Social relation, relationships among members within those societies. The term was former ...
,
sciences
Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...
,
humanities
Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture, including Philosophy, certain fundamental questions asked by humans. During the Renaissance, the term "humanities" referred to the study of classical literature a ...
,
leisure
Leisure (, ) has often been defined as a quality of experience or as free time. Free time is time spent away from business, Employment, work, job hunting, Housekeeping, domestic chores, and education, as well as necessary activities such as ...
, and
lifestyle, emphasizing the Japanese social climate and culture. It focuses on local regions and their histories, holding 3,325 entries on Japanese place names. At the same time, it explains foreign countries, their culture, history, and society, focusing especially on their relationships with Japan.
The length of the articles varies. Some are only a paragraph, while the others are over two pages. The articles are signed. Over 50,000 images enable the users to enjoy the encyclopedia and to understand the explanation. In particular, sciences and arts articles contain graphs, charts, maps, earth satellite maps, chronological tables, pictures of the arts, and portraits.
Special features
In addition to each entry, the encyclopedia contains "collaborations" where several authorities from different academic fields combine their various academic viewpoints.
The
verb
A verb is a word that generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual description of English, the basic f ...
entries are the other feature of ''Encyclopedia Nipponica'', which cannot be seen in conventional encyclopedias. They not only explain the simple meaning of verbs but also describe them culturally, socially, and scientifically. For instance, the entry of “
walk
Walking (also known as ambulation) is one of the main gaits of terrestrial locomotion among legged animals. Walking is typically slower than running and other gaits. Walking is defined as an "inverted pendulum" gait in which the body vaults over ...
” explains the ways and the reason for both people and animals to walk and the results of medical experiments on walking.
Formats
In addition to the paper-based encyclopedia, a CD-ROM version of ''Encyclopedia Nipponica'' and DVD version were once available. Entries from the CD-ROM and DVD version totaled 380,000. They also included approximately 80 video clips, 8,000 images, 90 animations, 350 music clips, and 60 virtual reality images. However, all three versions of ''Encyclopedia Nipponica'' are out of print as of November 2005. The
National Diet Library
The is the national library of Japan and among the largest libraries in the world. It was established in 1948 for the purpose of assisting members of the in researching matters of public policy. The library is similar in purpose and scope to ...
in Tokyo, Japan, holds the first and second version of ''Encyclopedia Nipponica''.
See also
*
Japanese encyclopedias
References
{{Reflist
Japanese encyclopedias
1989 non-fiction books
20th-century encyclopedias