Library and Information Science

Various kinds of English–Japanese dictionaries and vocabularies, preceding the present English–Japanese and/or Japanese–English dictionaries, were published during the period from 1854 to 1877. Until 1854, the country of Japan was closed, and the Western culture was imported only through the Dutch Firm established at Dejima Island, Nagasaki. Accordingly, English–Japanese dictionaries were published later than Dutch–Japanese dictionaries, among which the following two are well known: Edo Halma and Nagasaki Halma. The both of them were translated from the same original, Halma, Francois. Woordenboek der Nederduitsche en Fransche taalen, 2nd ed. 1781. The former was edited by S. Inamura and published in 1798–1799. An abridged edition of Edo Halma was also published later. Nagasaki Halma, a manuscript book, was made by H. Doeff, then the Captain of the Dutch Firm. The revised edition of this dictionary was published as Orandajii 1855–1858.

The first English–Japanese dictionary was a manuscript book which was edited in 1811. Then, A pocket dictionary of the English and Japanese language was edited and published by Tokugawa Shogunate Kaiseijo in 1862, 1866 and 1867. This dictionary was a translation of its original, A new pocket dictionary of English–Dutch languages, 2nd ed. Zalt-Bommel, publ. in 1857, and was the first standard dictionary of English–Japanese languages, influencing other succeeding dictionaries of this kind published in Japan until the end of the 19th century.

Exploring the early English dictionaries not only in the Keio University Library collection, but also in the collections of the National Diet Library, Waseda University Library, Seikado Bunko, Naikaku Bunko and Tosho Bunko, the writer reveals a total of about 50 titles of dictionaries which may by sorted in 8 types: “Early-stage type,” “A pocket dictionary of English–Japanese language type,” “Neary-present dictionary type,” “Bangosen (Dutch Word-book) type,” “Igirisu Tangohen (English Word-book) type,” “Setsuyoshu (English Vocaburary-for-Beginners) type,” “English Vocabulary-in-Grammar type,” and “Reprint type of a English–Chinese dictionary.”

Although the year of publication, printing and revision are important characteristics of old Japanese and Chinese books printed by woodblock, they are often neglected or left ambiguous in ordinary cataloguing. In this paper the writer pays more attention to the bibliographic characteristics than the contents or quality of the dictionaries in the scope of his study.