Wamyō Ruijushō

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The Wamyō ruijushō or Wamyō ruijūshō (倭名類聚抄, Wamyō ruijushō or Wamyō ruijūshō^? "Japanese names [for things], classified and annotated") is a 938 CE Japanese dictionary of Chinese characters. The Heian Period scholar Minamoto no Shitagō (源順, 911-983 CE) began compilation in 934, at the request of Emperor Daigo's daughter. This Wamyō ruijushō title is abbreviated as Wamyōshō, and has graphic variants of 和名類聚抄 with wa 和 "harmony; Japan" for wa 倭 "dwarf; Japan" and 倭名類聚鈔 with shō 鈔 "copy; summarize" for shō 抄 "copy; annotate".

The Wamyō ruijushō is the oldest extant Japanese dictionary organized into semantic headings, analogous to a Western language thesaurus. This ancient lexicographical collation system was developed in Chinese dictionaries like the Erya, Xiao Erya, and Shiming. The Wamyōshō categorizes kanji vocabulary, primarily nouns, into main headings (bu 部) divided into subheadings (rui 類). For instance, the tenchi (天地 "heaven and earth") heading includes eight semantic divisions like seishuku (星宿 "stars and constellations"), un'u (雲雨 "clouds and rain"), and fūsetsu (風雪 "wind and snow").

Each dictionary entry gives the Chinese character, sources cited, Chinese pronunciations (with either a homonym or fanqie spelling), definitions, and corresponding Japanese readings (in the ancient Man'yōgana system using kanji to represent Japanese pronunciation). It cites over 290 sources, both Chinese (for example, the Shuowen Jiezi) and Japanese (the Man'yōshū).

The Wamyō ruijushō, survives in both a 10-volume edition (十巻本) and a 20-volume edition (二十巻本). The larger one was published in 1617 with a commentary by Nawa Dōen (那波道円, 1595-1648) and was used in the Edo Period until the 1883 publication of the 10-volume edition annotated by Kariya Ekisai (狩谷棭齋, 1775-1835), also known as the Senchū Wamyō ruijushō (箋注倭名類聚抄 "Annotated commentary Wamyō ruijushō"). The 10-volume edition has 24 main headings divided into a total of 128 subheadings, while the 20-volume version has 32 and 249, respectively. The table below illustrates how words are semantically categorized in the 10-volume edition.

Subject headings in the 1883 *Wamyō ruijushō*
Heading	Rōmaji	Kanji	Subject
1	Tenchi	天地	heaven, earth, nature, gods
2	Jinrin	人倫	human relations, kinship, family
3	Keitai	形体	form, appearance, shape, body parts
4	Shippei	疾病	disease, sickness
5	Jutsugei	術芸	martial arts, skills
6	Kyosho	居処	dwellings, abodes, roads
7	Sensha	舟車	boats, vehicles
8	Chinpō	珍宝	treasured articles, precious metals, gems
9	Fuhaku	布帛	woven fabrics, cloth
10	Shōzoku	装束	apparel, clothing
11	Inshoku	飲食	food, drink
12	Kibei	器皿	vessels, implements
13	Tōka	燈火	lamps, lights
14	Chōdo	調度	household supplies, furnishings, daily necessities
15	Uzoku	羽族	winged creatures, birds
16	Mōgun	毛群	wool- and fur-bearing creatures, wild animals
17	Gyūsha	牛馬	cattle, horses
18	Ryōgo	竜魚	dragons, fish, reptiles, amphibians
19	Kibai	亀貝	turtles, shellfish, aquatic creatures
20	Chūchi	虫豸	insects, worms, reptiles
21	Tōkoku	稲穀	rice, grains, cereal plants
22	Saiso	菜蔬	vegetables
23	Kayu	果瓜	fruits, melons
24	Sōmoku	草木	grass, trees, flowers, miscellaneous flora

The broadly inclusive Wamyō ruijushō dictionary was an antecedent for Japanese encyclopedias. In the present day, it provides linguists and historians with an invaluable record of the Japanese language over 1000 years ago. For more details, see Bailey (1960:4-6, 18-19) in English and Okimori (1996:287-288) in Japanese.

[edit] References

Bailey, Don Clifford. (1960). "Early Japanese Lexicography". Monumenta Nipponica 16:1-52.
Mori Shiten 林史典. (1996). "和名類聚抄 (Wamyō ruijushō)." In Nihon jisho jiten 日本辞書辞典 (The Encyclopedia of Dictionaries Published in Japan), Okimori Takuya 沖森卓也, et al., eds., pp. 287-288. Tokyo: Ōfū. ISBN 4-273-02890-5