The is a 938 CE Japanese dictionary of Chinese characters. The Heian Period

Heian period

The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. The period is named after the capital city of Heian-kyō, or modern Kyōto. It is the period in Japanese history when Buddhism, Taoism and other Chinese influences were at their height...

 scholar Minamoto no Shitagō

Minamoto no Shitago

was a mid Heian waka poet, scholar and nobleman. He was the original compiler of the Wamyō Ruijushō, the first Japanese dictionary organized into semantic headings. He was designated as one of the Thirty-six Poetry Immortals for his distinguished poetic accomplishments. In addition to the Wamyō...

 (源順, 911-983 CE) began compilation in 934, at the request of Emperor Daigo

Emperor Daigo

was the 60th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession.Daigo's reign spanned the years from 897 through 930. He is named after his place of burial.-Traditional narrative:...

'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

Wa (Japan)

Japanese is the oldest recorded name of Japan. Chinese, Korean, and Japanese scribes regularly wrote Wa or Yamato "Japan" with the Chinese character 倭 until the 8th century, when the Japanese found fault with it, replacing it with 和 "harmony, peace, balance".- Historical references :The earliest...

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

Thesaurus

A thesaurus is a reference work that lists words grouped together according to similarity of meaning , in contrast to a dictionary, which contains definitions and pronunciations...

. This ancient lexicographical collation

Collation

Collation is the assembly of written information into a standard order. One common type of collation is called alphabetization, though collation is not limited to ordering letters of the alphabet...

 system was developed in Chinese dictionaries like the Erya

Erya

The Erya is the oldest extant Chinese dictionary or Chinese encyclopedia. Bernhard Karlgren concluded that "the major part of its glosses must reasonably date from" the 3rd century BC....

, Xiao Erya

Xiao Erya

The Xiao Erya was an early Chinese dictionary that supplements the Erya. It was supposedly compiled in the early Han Dynasty by Kong Fu , a descendent of Confucius...

, and Shiming

Shiming

The Shìmíng is a Chinese dictionary that employed phonological glosses, and "is believed to date from c. 200 [CE]" . Its 1502 definitions attempt to establish semantic connections based upon puns between the word being defined and the word defining it, which is often followed with an explanation...

. The Wamyōshō categorizes 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...

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

Homonym

In linguistics, a homonym is, in the strict sense, one of a group of words that often but not necessarily share the same spelling and the same pronunciation but have different meanings...

 or fanqie

Fanqiè

In Chinese phonology, fanqie is a method to indicate the pronunciation of a character by using two other characters.-The Origin:...

spelling), definitions, and corresponding Japanese readings (in the ancient Man'yōgana system using K5anji to represent Japanese pronunciation). It cites over 290 sources, both Chinese (for example, the Shuowen Jiezi

Shuowen Jiezi

The Shuōwén Jiězì was an early 2nd century CE Chinese dictionary from the Han Dynasty. Although not the first comprehensive Chinese character dictionary , it was still the first to analyze the structure of the characters and to give the rationale behind them , as well as the first to use the...

) 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

Edo period

The , or , is a division of Japanese history which was ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family, running from 1603 to 1868. The political entity of this period was the Tokugawa shogunate....

 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 to the 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

	Rōmaji	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...	Translation	Subjects
1	Tenchi	天地	Universe	constellations, weather, gods, earth, topography
2	Jinrin	人倫	Humans	gender, kinship, family, marriage
3	Keitai	形体	Body	body parts, sense organs, internal organs
4	Shippei	疾病	Sickness	diseases, wounds
5	Jutsugei	術藝	Arts	martial arts, fine arts, skills
6	Kyosho	居處	Architecture	houses, walls, doors, roads
7	Sensha	舟車	Vehicles	boats, carts, carriages
8	Chinpō	珍寶	Treasures	precious metals, jewels
9	Fuhaku	布帛	Textiles	embroidery, silks, woven fabrics
10	Shōzoku	装束	Clothing	hats, clothes, belts, shoes
11	Inshoku	飲食	Foods and Drinks	liquors, beverages, cooked grains, fruits, meats
12	Kibei	器皿	Utensils	objects of metal, lacquer, wood, tile, and bamboo
13	Tōka	燈火	Illumination	lamps, lights, lighting
14	Chōdo	調度	Things and Supplies	implements, tools, weapons, utensils, furnishings
15	Uzoku	羽族	Birds	birds, feathers, ornithology
16	Mōgun	毛群	Wild Animals	wild animals, body parts
17	Gyūsha	牛馬	Domestic Animals	cattle, horses, sheep, body parts, diseases
18	Ryōgo	龍魚	Aquatic animals	dragons, fish, reptiles, amphibians
19	Kibai	龜貝	Shellfishes	turtles, shellfish
20	Chūchi	蟲豸	Miscellaneous Animals	insects, worms, small reptiles
21	Tōkoku	稲穀	Grains	rices, cereals
22	Saiso	菜蔬	Vegetables	tubers, seaweeds, edible plants
23	Kayu	果蓏	Fruits	fruits, melons
24	Sōmoku	草木	Plants	grasses, mosses, vines, flowers, trees

The broadly inclusive Wamyō ruijushō dictionary was an antecedent for Japanese encyclopedias

Japanese encyclopedias

In Japanese, encyclopedias are known as hyakka jiten , which literally means "book of a hundred subjects," and can trace their origins to the early Heian period, in the ninth century. Encyclopedic works were published in Japan for well over a thousand years before Japan's first modern 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.

External links

• 倭名類聚鈔, Waseda University Library online Wamyō ruijushō (in Japanese)
• Manuscript scans at Waseda University Library
  Waseda University Library
  The library of Waseda University is one of the largest libraries in Japan. It was established in 1882, and currently holds some 4.5 million volumes and 46,000 serials.-History:...
  
  : 1617, 1667, 1667, 1688, 17th century, 17th century