The development of typography in the bilingual dictionaries of Japanese and the Western languages from 1595 up to the end of the 19th century

Conference item

The presentation will illustrate the development of typography in the bilingual dictionaries of Japanese and the Western languages from 1595 up to the end of the 19th century. The crucial step towards 'modernized' or 'Westernized' typography was the shift from vertical to horizontal writing in Japanese. It was introduced in the late nineteenth century, led by the groundbreaking Japanese-English dictionary by the American missionary James Curtis Hepburn, which was published in 1867. It was the first dictionary in Japan to be printed entirely from metal type and with features of Western typography fully employed. For example, italic, bold, small caps, indentation parantheses, etc. were used to distinguish the function of different text elements.

The shift in writing direction arose from the need to accommodate two entirely different writing systems on a single page, which was a problem nowhere as evident as in a dictionary. It enabled the Japanese dictionaries to follow Western lexicography, which enjoys full advantage of typography.

Over 25 dictionaries will be presented to illustrate the key stages of the development - Dictionaries compiled by the Jesuit missionaries in 16th century Japan - Early Dutch-Japanese dictionaries in 17th century Japan - Dictionaries compiled by French Orientalists in the 18th century - Chinese-English dictionaries compiled by British missionaries in the early 19th century Hepburn's dictionary in 1869 and the dictionaries published afterwards.

These sources will be examined in terms of printing method, format and typographic configuration.

Authors: Mugikura, S

• Alternative title: Presented at Chinese/Japanese Lexicography session
• Publication status: Not published
• Peer review status: Reviewed (other)
• Language: English
• Keywords: Japan
• Subjects: Lexicography