|
Vocabulario da Lingoa de Iapam com adeclaracão em
Portugues, feito por alguns Padres, e Irmaõs da Companhia de Iesu
was published in 1603 by the Jesuit Mission Press
in Nagasaki in Portuguese. This Press was set up in Japan in 1590
and continued until 1610, when the Mission moved to Macao. Its
output during this period was enormous, in the fields of both language
and doctrine.
Vocabulario
was the first
Japanese/European language dictionary ever printed. For almost
two centuries any other Japanese dictionary in the West was a
translation of this one. It would be difficult to exaggerate in
one's praises of this magnificent work, compiled and set out in a most
modern and scientific way. With its 150-page supplement
(published in 1604), the work contains about 30,000 words, illustrating
the meaning of more difficult terms with numerous examples and
quotations. The dictionary also explains technical Buddhist concepts (such as
en,
karma) which would have been unfamiliar to contemporary
Europeans. The editorship of the dictionary has been ascribed to
no less than three Jesuits all bearing the name of Rodrigues, but it is
practically certain that João Rodrigues (below) had at least
some part in its compilation. No small credit is also due to a group
of talented Japanese Jesuits who co-operated with the project. A
similar Japanese-Spanish dictionary, based on the work, was published
by the Jesuits in Manila in 1630. The original
Vocabulario
is now an extremely rare work, copies being preserved only in Oxford, Manila,
Paris, and Evora. A photographic facsimile of the Bodleian copy
was published in Tōkyō in 1960. For us,
Vocabulario
is an extremely valuable reference to actual word usage during Muromachi Japan.
João Rodrigues, S.J. (1561-1634) was born in Sernancelhe, Portugal, and when only 15 years of age sailed to Japan, where he entered the Society of Jesus in 1580. Obtaining a great fluency in Japanese (hence often called Rodrigues Tçuzzu, or Rodrigues the Interpreter), he served as interpreter for Hideyoshi and Ieyasu. Following his expulsion from Japan in 1612, he settled in Macao where he eventually died. In addition to his História da Igreja do Japã o, he was also author of the grammar Arte da Lingoa de Japam (1604) and its revised edition Arte Breve da Lingoa Iapoa... (1620). In the dictionary, f.25 defines Bonção ( bonsan ) as "a stone or rough piece of wood" which serves as the base of a miniature landscape made with "green mosses, & a tiny tree planted there, &c." or (by another translation) "a Japanese-style arrangement of dwarf trees, stone, and green moss to represent a rock in water." 1 |
|
1
Elison,
George "The Cross and the Sword: Patterns of Momoyama History" in Elison,
George and Bardwell L. Smith (eds.)
Warlords, Artists, and Commoners
(Honolulu: The University Press of Hawaii, 1981), pp. 74 and 301 note 62 which gives the first definition of "bonsan";
Cooper, Michael, S.J. (ed.)
They Came to Japan, An Anthology of European Reports on Japan, 1543-1640
(Berkeley, CA: University of California Press; 1965), pp. 175, 181-182, 411,
424, 427;
"The Humour and Virtues of Muromachi Bonsai,"
Bonsai,
BCI, May/June 1989 (reprinted from
The East, June 1986), pg. 4
contains the second translation of the dictionary's term "
bonsan."
|