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Paper short abstract

The Roman Jesuit Archives hold 17th-century manuscripts written in Macau, containing Chinese characters with translations in Latin, Japanese, Chinese, and Vietnamese. Focusing on Japanese kanji readings therein, I will examine the Japanese kanji studies by Jesuits after being expelled from Japan.

Paper long abstract

This presentation examines the study of Japanese kanji by Jesuits in 17th-century Macau.

The earliest European analyses of kanji pronunciation date back to Christian documents (Kirishitan Shiryō) compiled between the late 16th and early 17th centuries. While sources such as "Vocabulário da Língua do Japão" (Nagasaki, 1603–04), "Arte da Lingoa de Iapam" (Nagasaki, 1604–08), and "Arte Breue da Lingoa Iapoa" (Macau, 1620) are well-known, little-known　manuscripts related to the Japanese language produced in Macau also exist.

The Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu (ARSI) houses manuscripts containing Chinese characters with translations or transcriptions in Latin, Japanese, Chinese, and Vietnamese. One of these manuscripts includes Japanese kanji pronunciations (e.g., 的 nô, 爾 vô) that appear irregular compared to standard readings. While some of these irregular pronunciations closely resemble the Tō-on (Early Modern Sino-Japanese reading) of the Edo period, others cannot be explained by this alone. Some may be simple errors, while certain cases appear to reflect the influence of kundoku—the traditional Japanese method of reading Chinese texts. The pronunciations influenced by kundoku appear curious when considered as readings of the kanji alone.

The Japanese language recorded in these manuscripts written in Macau serves as a valuable resource for understanding how Europeans studied the Japanese language outside of Japan. These findings are expected to contribute significantly to the fields of historical Japanese linguistics and Jesuit linguistic studies.