Project Details
Projekt
The revision of knowledge: on the genesis of “national language dictionaries” (kokugo jisho) and the commercialisation of "knowledge" in 17th and 18th century Ôsaka
Applicant
Professor Dr. Stephan Köhn
Subject Area
Asian Studies
Term
from 2019 to 2024
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 427290130
Setsuyôshû is a new type of dictionary that emerges in the second half of the 15th century and becomes, with more than 800 published titles, one of the pillars of the publishing business in Ôsaka.Despite its financial success, most researchers doubt Setsuyôshû’s practical use as a “language dictionary”. Setsuyôshû is considered an anachronistic, impractical, and flawed print product. It is widely believed that reliable “dictionaries of national language” (kokugo jisho) do not come into life until the middle of the 19th century. However, the Otoko setsuyôshû nyoi hôju taisei (“Completion of the wish-fulfilling jewel: the time-saving collection for men”) published 1716 by Aburaya in Ôsaka seems to call for a revision of all previous research. The research project advocates the thesis that Yamamoto Joshû, the editor of this work, undertakes with his Otoko setsuyôshû a thorough revision of knowledge that has been uncritically passed on by former Setsuyôshû. On the one hand, Yamamoto verifies the given reading and writing of Chinese characters by consulting historical documents/dictionaries, and, on the other hand, updates the antiquated vocabulary by consulting contemporary dictionaries of colloquial language/dialects. Yamamoto’s Otoko setsuyôshû can be seen as a reaction to a fundamental paradigm shift that takes place in the linguistic, cultural, social and economic sphere in the early 18th century. With his innovative meta-level commentaries that impressively reflects a consciousness of language’s historicity, Otoko setsuyôshû must be considered the prototype of all kokugo jisho. A thorough philological and historico-cultural analysis shall reveal the eminent role this work has actually played in the history of Setsuyôshû.In a first step, the original woodblock-print of the Otoko setsuyôshû will be edited, translated, and annotated. During this process, Yamamoto’s meta-level commentaries will be systematically scrutinized to reconstruct a new stock of knowledge Yamamoto tried to implement for his contemporaries in the Setsuyôshû. In a next step, a comparison with the vocabulary of the Ekirinbon, the “forefather” of the Setsuyôshû, will shed light on revisions made by Yamamoto regarding words, pronunciation (i.e. reading), orthography (i.e. spelling), or forms of representation of Chinese characters as a reaction to the before-mentioned paradigm shift. In a last step, the historical context of production and reception of the Otoko setsuyôshû will be examined to gain new insights in highly competitive network-structures of publishing houses specialised on Setsuyôshû in Ôsaka and to get a better understanding of the growing significance of “knowledge” as a commodity in the daily life of the 18th century. This finally leads also to the crucial question of how and why “writing” begins to play such an eminent role in virtually all cultural, social, or economical spheres in terms of a modern “knowledge-based society” in 18th century Japan.
DFG Programme
Research Grants
International Connection
Japan, United Kingdom
