Paper short abstract:

This paper introduces the construction of revised text and note making of Chinese-Japanese character dictionaries compiled in early Japan. We have provided a detailed report of Kanchi'inbon Ruijumyogisho, which recorded many Japanese readings by katakana written in the Heian period.

Paper long abstract:

This paper introduces the construction of revised text and note making of Chinese-Japanese character dictionaries compiled in early Japan. We have provided a detailed report of Kanchi'inbon Ruijumyogisho, which recorded many Japanese readings by katakana written in the Heian period.

Data management of this study depended on the Integrated database of Hanzi dictionaries in early Japan, also known as HDIC project. The project includes four dictionaries: Kosanjibon Tenreibanshomeigi高山寺本篆隷万象名義, Tenjibon Shinsenjikyo天治本新撰字鏡, Zushoryobon Ruijumyogisho図書寮本類聚名義抄, and Kanchi'inbon Ruijumyogisho観智院本類聚名義抄. Kanchi'inbon Ruijumyogisho contains around 34,000 Japanese readings, which have a high value in research as Japanese linguistics historical documents. Even the largest Japanese dictionary Nihon Kokugo Daijiten (Shogakukan) adopts its many contents as examples. However, being handed down as old manuscripts, owing to the problems of variant characters, cursive, etc., it is difficult to decipher the text, full-text transliteration does not exist.

The research group, to which the authors are affiliated, began the database of the four dictionaries mentioned above in the 1990s and succeeded in publishing the full-text data of Tenreibanshomeigi and Shinsenjikyo. Now, the full-text input of Kanchi'inbon Ruijumyogisho is completed. The issues regarding compiled stylistic rules, terminology, and entry counts have been resolved.

Furthermore, by using the fine, coloured copy of Kanchi'inbon Ruijumyogisho published recently, we are working on improving the precision of the transliterated text. Also, we are making the variant characters' font and reforming the interface of the database, so as to provide highly accurate text to numerous researchers associated with different research domains internationally. Moreover, by incorporating previous research results and the illustrations of Japanese classical literature, we aim to complete the note making of Kanchi'inbon Ruijumyogisho.