The was a popular

Muromachi period The , also known as the , is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate ( or ), which was officially established in 1338 by the first Muromachi ...

Japanese dictionary

collated Collation is the assembly of written information into a standard order. Many systems of collation are based on numerical order or alphabetical order, or extensions and combinations thereof. Collation is a fundamental element of most office fil ...

in ''

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

'' order and subdivided into semantic categories. The title word ''setsuyō'' means "reduce usage; economize" and alludes to the '' Lunyu'' (compare the '' Kagakushū''). "Confucius said: 'If you would govern a state of a thousand chariots (a small-to-middle-size state), you must pay strict attention to business, be true to your word, be economical in expenditure and love the people'. The origins of the ''Setsuyōshū'' are unclear. The oldest extant edition is dated 1496 CE, and the text was probably compiled shortly before the

Bunmei was a after '' Ōnin'' and before ''Chōkyō''. This period spanned from April 1469 through July 1487.Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Bunmei''" i ''Japan encyclopedia'', p. 89 n.b., Louis-Frédéric is pseudonym of Louis-Frédéric Nussb ...

era (1469–1487 CE). Despite much speculation about the dictionary's anonymous author, Bailey concludes "a nameless fifteenth-century Zen priest is the likeliest candidate". Unlike many early

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 ...

Chinese characters Chinese characters are logographs used Written Chinese, to write the Chinese languages and others from regions historically influenced by Chinese culture. Of the four independently invented writing systems accepted by scholars, they represe ...

that were intended for literati, the ''Setsuyōshū'' was a true Japanese language dictionary and entered vocabulary current in Muromachi times. Each main entry gives the word in ''

kanji are logographic Chinese characters, adapted from Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script, 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 and are ...

'' (Chinese characters), notes Japanese pronunciation in ''

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 fr ...

'' on the right, and occasionally adds etymologies and comments on the bottom. There are numerous ''Setsuyōshū'' editions (over 180 from the

Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

) and many vary in content and format. Most versions collate words according to their first syllable under 43–47 ''iroha'' divisions (''bu'' 部) with 9–16 semantic subdivisions (''mon'' 門), which usually begin with "Heaven and Earth" (''Tenchi'' 天地) and end with "Unclassified words" (''Genji'' 言辞). This arrangement combines both ''

Iroha Jiruishō The is a 12th-century Japanese dictionary of ''Kanji are logographic Chinese characters, adapted from Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script, used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanes ...

'' phonetic ordering and '' Kagakushū'' semantic classifications. The Japanese linguist Hashimoto Shinkichi analyzed differences among early ''Setsuyōshū'' editions and found three categories, distinguished by the first word beginning with ''i''- appearing under the first '"Heaven and Earth" heading. The dictionaries' initial word is either ''Ise'' (伊勢 "old name for

Mie Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Mie Prefecture has a population of 1,781,948 () and has a geographic area of . Mie Prefecture is bordered by Gifu Prefecture to the north, Shiga Prefecture an ...

"), ''Indo'' (印度 "India"), or ''inui'' (乾 "northwest"). "''Ise'' editions" have few appendices, put place names near the beginning of subject headings, and are probably the oldest

redaction Redaction or sanitization is the process of removing sensitive information from a document so that it may be distributed to a broader audience. It is intended to allow the selective disclosure of information. Typically, the result is a document ...

. "''Indo'' editions" have many appendices, including place names, and clearly have been supplemented from the 1444 CE ''Kagakushū''. "''Inui'' editions" are usually printed with

movable type Movable type (US English; moveable type in British English) is the system and technology of printing and typography that uses movable Sort (typesetting), components to reproduce the elements of a document (usually individual alphanumeric charac ...

, have more entries and corrections, and are the newest version. ''Setsuyōshū'' has a parallel with ''

Webster's ''Webster's Dictionary'' is any of the US English language dictionaries edited in the early 19th century by Noah Webster (1758–1843), a US lexicographer, as well as numerous related or unrelated dictionaries that have adopted the Webster's n ...

'' informally meaning "English language dictionary". Nakao notes this dictionary "remained popular for so long that the name ''Setsuyoshu'' was used as a generic term for Japanese dictionaries (with the entries arranged in the order of ''iroha'')".

References

External links

饅頭屋本節用集
5 Muromachi editions of ''Setsuyōshū'', Tsukuba University Library

4 Muromachi editions of ''Setsuyōshū'', Gifu University Library

rare edition ''Setsuyōshū'', Kyoto University Library {{DEFAULTSORT:Setsuyoshu Japanese dictionaries Late Middle Japanese texts Muromachi-period works

References

Further reading

External links