Kojien
Encyclopedia
The is a single-volume Japanese dictionary first published by Iwanami Shoten in 1955. Many native speakers of Japanese regard the Kōjien as the most authoritative dictionary, and newspaper editorials frequently cite its definitions. As of 2007, it has sold 11 million copies.
of Shinmura Izuru
, 1876–1967, a professor of linguistics and Japanese at Kyoto University
. He was born in Yamaguchi Prefecture
and graduated from Japan's elite Tokyo University, where he was a student of . After studying in Germany, Ueda taught comparative linguistics
and edited foreign-language dictionaries in the latter part of the Meiji era. Through his tutelage, Shinmura became involved in Japanese language
lexicography. Even Kōjien editions published after his death credit Shinmura as the chief editor.
. Shinmura appointed his son Takeshi Shinmura (新村猛, Shinmura Takeshi, 1905–1992) as an editor, and in 1935, Hakubunkan (博文館) published the Jien dictionary. It contained some 160,000 headword
entries of old and new Japanese vocabulary, as well as encyclopedic content, and quickly became a bestseller. The editors began working on a revised edition, but the 1945 Firebombing of Tokyo destroyed their work. After the war, Shinmura and his lexicographers began anew in September 1948. Iwanami Shoten published the first Kōjien in 1955.
The Kōjien is currently in its 6th edition, which was released on January 11, 2008.
The 1st edition Kōjien (1955) entered approximately 200,000 headwords, about 40,000 more than the Jien. The 2nd edition (1969) deleted about 20,000 old entries and added about 20,000 new ones, especially scientific terms. On December 1, 1976, a hoteiban (補訂版 "revised expanded edition") of the 2nd was published. The 3rd edition (1983) added 12,000 entries, and was published in CD-ROM
format in 1987. Three major Japanese publishers released new dictionaries specifically designed to compete with the Iwanami's popular and profitable Kōjien: Sanseidō's Daijirin
(大辞林 "Great forest of words", 1988), Shōgakukan's Daijisen
(大辞泉 "Great fountainhead of words", 1995), and Kōdansha's Nihongo Daijiten
(日本語大辞典 "Great dictionary of Japanese" 1989). In response, the 4th edition Kōjien (1991) was a major revision that added some 15,000 entry words, bringing the total to over 220,000. The CD-ROM version was published in 1993 and revised with color illustrations (like the Nihongo daijiten) in 1996. In 1992, Iwanami published both an e-book
format 4th edition and a useful Gyakubiki Kōjien (逆引き広辞苑 "Reverse dictionary Kōjien"). The 5th edition (1998) enters over 230,000 headwords, and its 2996 pages contain an estimated total of 14 million characters. Iwanami Shoten currently publishes Kōjien in several printed and digital formats, and also sells dictionary subscription services for cell phone and Internet access. Various manufacturers of Japanese electronic dictionaries have licensed the digital Kōjien, and it is the core dictionary in many models.
Shinmura's preface to the 1st edition stated his hope that the Kōjien would become regarded as the standard by which other dictionaries would be measured. This has largely been fulfilled; many people regard the Kōjien as the most authoritative Japanese language dictionary on the market. It remains a bestseller in Japan. According to Iwanami, the 1st edition Kōjien sold over one million copies, and the 5th edition brought cumulative total sales to over eleven million in 2000.
The new sixth edition includes more than 10,000 new entries, bringing the total to approximately 240,000. It also contains an additional 1,500 quotations.
syllabary and collates them in gojūon
("50 sounds") order. Baroni and Bialock (2005) describe the Kōjien as "an old standard that gives extensive definitions, etymologies (as always take care with these), and variant usages for words, places, historical and literary figures, and furigana
for difficult or old terms."
This dictionary is notable for including current Japanese catchphrases and buzzword
s. For instance, the 4th edition added furītā (フリーター "a part-time worker by choice"), which blends two loanwords: furī (フリー "free", from English, as in furīransu フリーランス "freelance") and arubaitā (アルバイター "part-time worker", from German arbeit "work").
The Kōjien dictionary had a censorship policy before it became politically correct (see kotobagari
), and omitted taboo
words such as sexual slang or offensive terms. It includes encyclopedic information such as 2700 illustrations and maps, and mini-biographies of notable people (both living and dead foreigners, but only deceased Japanese). The appendices include Japanese grammar
notes, kanji
with difficult readings, Japanese calendar
and Gregorian calendar
charts, and lists of gairaigo
acronyms.
Gally (1999) says, "Koujien is a fine dictionary with a sterling reputation. Because it gives definitions in historical order, it is the best single-volume choice for people interested in how the meanings of words have changed over time." However, he notes, "In my experience as a translator of contemporary Japanese, though, I have found Koujien less useful than Daijirin
."
Izuru Shinmura
Kōjien was the magnum opusMagnum opus
Magnum opus , from the Latin meaning "great work", refers to the largest, and perhaps the best, greatest, most popular, or most renowned achievement of a writer, artist, or composer.-Related terms:Sometimes the term magnum opus is used to refer to simply "a great work" rather than "the...
of Shinmura Izuru
Shinmura Izuru
was a Japanese linguist and essayist. His is best known for his many contributions to Japanese linguistics and lexicography. In honor of him, Shinmura Izuru Prize is annually awarded to contributions to Linguistics.- Background :...
, 1876–1967, a professor of linguistics and Japanese at Kyoto University
Kyoto University
, or is a national university located in Kyoto, Japan. It is the second oldest Japanese university, and formerly one of Japan's Imperial Universities.- History :...
. He was born in Yamaguchi Prefecture
Yamaguchi Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan in the Chūgoku region on Honshū island. The capital is the city of Yamaguchi, in the center of the prefecture. The largest city, however, is Shimonoseki.- History :...
and graduated from Japan's elite Tokyo University, where he was a student of . After studying in Germany, Ueda taught comparative linguistics
Comparative linguistics
Comparative linguistics is a branch of historical linguistics that is concerned with comparing languages to establish their historical relatedness....
and edited foreign-language dictionaries in the latter part of the Meiji era. Through his tutelage, Shinmura became involved in Japanese language
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
lexicography. Even Kōjien editions published after his death credit Shinmura as the chief editor.
History
The predecessor of the Kōjien originated during the Great Depression in East Asia. In 1930, the publisher Shigeo Oka (岡茂雄, Oka Shigeo, 1894–1989) wanted to create a Japanese dictionary for high school students. He asked his friend Shinmura to be chief editor, and they chose the title Jien (辞苑 "Garden of words") in a classical allusion to the Ziyuan (字苑, "Garden of characters") Chinese dictionaryChinese dictionary
Chinese dictionaries date back over two millennia to the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, which is a significantly longer lexicographical history than any other language. There are hundreds of dictionaries for Chinese, and this article will introduce some of the most important...
. Shinmura appointed his son Takeshi Shinmura (新村猛, Shinmura Takeshi, 1905–1992) as an editor, and in 1935, Hakubunkan (博文館) published the Jien dictionary. It contained some 160,000 headword
Headword
A headword, head word, lemma, or sometimes catchword is the word under which a set of related dictionary or encyclopaedia entries appear. The headword is used to locate the entry, and dictates its alphabetical position...
entries of old and new Japanese vocabulary, as well as encyclopedic content, and quickly became a bestseller. The editors began working on a revised edition, but the 1945 Firebombing of Tokyo destroyed their work. After the war, Shinmura and his lexicographers began anew in September 1948. Iwanami Shoten published the first Kōjien in 1955.
The Kōjien is currently in its 6th edition, which was released on January 11, 2008.
| Edition | Publication Date | ISBN |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | 25 May 1955 | |
| 2nd | 16 May 1969 | |
| 3rd | 6 December 1983 | |
| 4th | 15 November 1991 | ISBN 4-00-080101-5 |
| 5th | 11 November 1998 | ISBN 4-00-080111-2 |
| 6th | 11 January 2008 | ISBN 978-4-00-080121-8 |
The 1st edition Kōjien (1955) entered approximately 200,000 headwords, about 40,000 more than the Jien. The 2nd edition (1969) deleted about 20,000 old entries and added about 20,000 new ones, especially scientific terms. On December 1, 1976, a hoteiban (補訂版 "revised expanded edition") of the 2nd was published. The 3rd edition (1983) added 12,000 entries, and was published in CD-ROM
CD-ROM
A CD-ROM is a pre-pressed compact disc that contains data accessible to, but not writable by, a computer for data storage and music playback. The 1985 “Yellow Book” standard developed by Sony and Philips adapted the format to hold any form of binary data....
format in 1987. Three major Japanese publishers released new dictionaries specifically designed to compete with the Iwanami's popular and profitable Kōjien: Sanseidō's Daijirin
Daijirin
The is a comprehensive single-volume Japanese dictionary edited by , and first published by in 1988. This title is based upon two early Sanseido dictionaries edited by Shōzaburō Kanazawa , the Jirin and the revised Kōjirin .-History:Sanseido specifically created the Daijirin to compete with...
(大辞林 "Great forest of words", 1988), Shōgakukan's Daijisen
Daijisen
The is a general-purpose Japanese dictionary published by Shogakukan in 1995 and 1998. It was designed as an "all-in-one" dictionary for native speakers of Japanese, especially high school and university students.-History:...
(大辞泉 "Great fountainhead of words", 1995), and Kōdansha's Nihongo Daijiten
Nihongo Daijiten
The is a color-illustrated Japanese dictionary edited by Umesao Tadao and published by Kodansha in 1989 and 1995 .-History:...
(日本語大辞典 "Great dictionary of Japanese" 1989). In response, the 4th edition Kōjien (1991) was a major revision that added some 15,000 entry words, bringing the total to over 220,000. The CD-ROM version was published in 1993 and revised with color illustrations (like the Nihongo daijiten) in 1996. In 1992, Iwanami published both an e-book
E-book
An electronic book is a book-length publication in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, and produced on, published through, and readable on computers or other electronic devices. Sometimes the equivalent of a conventional printed book, e-books can also be born digital...
format 4th edition and a useful Gyakubiki Kōjien (逆引き広辞苑 "Reverse dictionary Kōjien"). The 5th edition (1998) enters over 230,000 headwords, and its 2996 pages contain an estimated total of 14 million characters. Iwanami Shoten currently publishes Kōjien in several printed and digital formats, and also sells dictionary subscription services for cell phone and Internet access. Various manufacturers of Japanese electronic dictionaries have licensed the digital Kōjien, and it is the core dictionary in many models.
Shinmura's preface to the 1st edition stated his hope that the Kōjien would become regarded as the standard by which other dictionaries would be measured. This has largely been fulfilled; many people regard the Kōjien as the most authoritative Japanese language dictionary on the market. It remains a bestseller in Japan. According to Iwanami, the 1st edition Kōjien sold over one million copies, and the 5th edition brought cumulative total sales to over eleven million in 2000.
The new sixth edition includes more than 10,000 new entries, bringing the total to approximately 240,000. It also contains an additional 1,500 quotations.
Lexicographical characteristics
The Kōjien, like most Japanese dictionaries, writes headwords in hiraganaHiragana
is a Japanese syllabary, one basic component of the Japanese writing system, along with katakana, kanji, and the Latin alphabet . Hiragana and katakana are both kana systems, in which each character represents one mora...
syllabary and collates them in gojūon
Gojuon
The is a Japanese ordering of kana.It is named for the 5×10 grid in which the characters are displayed, but the grid is not completely filled, and, further, there is an extra character added outside the grid at the end: with 5 gaps and 1 extra character, the current number of distinct kana in a...
("50 sounds") order. Baroni and Bialock (2005) describe the Kōjien as "an old standard that gives extensive definitions, etymologies (as always take care with these), and variant usages for words, places, historical and literary figures, and furigana
Furigana
is a Japanese reading aid, consisting of smaller kana, or syllabic characters, printed next to a kanji or other character to indicate its pronunciation. In horizontal text, yokogaki, they are placed above the line of text, while in vertical text, tategaki, they are placed to the right of the line...
for difficult or old terms."
This dictionary is notable for including current Japanese catchphrases and buzzword
Buzzword
A buzzword is a term of art, salesmanship, politics, or technical jargon that is used in the media and wider society outside of its originally narrow technical context....
s. For instance, the 4th edition added furītā (フリーター "a part-time worker by choice"), which blends two loanwords: furī (フリー "free", from English, as in furīransu フリーランス "freelance") and arubaitā (アルバイター "part-time worker", from German arbeit "work").
The Kōjien dictionary had a censorship policy before it became politically correct (see kotobagari
Kotobagari
refers to the reluctance to use words that are considered politically incorrect in the Japanese language. For instance words such as , , tsunbo , oshi , kichigai , tosatsujō , and hakuchi are currently not used by the majority of Japanese publishing houses; the publishers often refuse...
), and omitted taboo
Taboo
A taboo is a strong social prohibition relating to any area of human activity or social custom that is sacred and or forbidden based on moral judgment, religious beliefs and or scientific consensus. Breaking the taboo is usually considered objectionable or abhorrent by society...
words such as sexual slang or offensive terms. It includes encyclopedic information such as 2700 illustrations and maps, and mini-biographies of notable people (both living and dead foreigners, but only deceased Japanese). The appendices include Japanese grammar
Japanese grammar
The Japanese language has a regular agglutinative verb morphology, with both productive and fixed elements. In language typology, it has many features divergent from most European languages. Its phrases are exclusively head-final and compound sentences are exclusively left-branching. There are many...
notes, kanji
Kanji
Kanji are the adopted logographic Chinese characters hanzi that are used in the modern Japanese writing system along with hiragana , katakana , Indo Arabic numerals, and the occasional use of the Latin alphabet...
with difficult readings, Japanese calendar
Japanese calendar
On January 1, 1873, Japan adopted the Gregorian calendar. Before 1873, the Chinese style lunisolar calendar had been in use since 7th century. Japanese eras are still in use.-System:...
and Gregorian calendar
Gregorian calendar
The Gregorian calendar, also known as the Western calendar, or Christian calendar, is the internationally accepted civil calendar. It was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII, after whom the calendar was named, by a decree signed on 24 February 1582, a papal bull known by its opening words Inter...
charts, and lists of gairaigo
Gairaigo
Gairaigo is Japanese for "loan word" or "borrowed word", and indicates a transliteration into Japanese. In particular, the word usually refers to a Japanese word of foreign origin that was not borrowed from Chinese, primarily from English. Japanese also has a large number of loan words from...
acronyms.
Gally (1999) says, "Koujien is a fine dictionary with a sterling reputation. Because it gives definitions in historical order, it is the best single-volume choice for people interested in how the meanings of words have changed over time." However, he notes, "In my experience as a translator of contemporary Japanese, though, I have found Koujien less useful than Daijirin
Daijirin
The is a comprehensive single-volume Japanese dictionary edited by , and first published by in 1988. This title is based upon two early Sanseido dictionaries edited by Shōzaburō Kanazawa , the Jirin and the revised Kōjirin .-History:Sanseido specifically created the Daijirin to compete with...
."