Hibiya Kenjirō (日比谷健次郎) (1836–1886) and Katō Suikei (加藤翠渓) (1818–1895) published Japan's first Japanese-German dictionary, Wadokutaiyaku Jirin (和獨對譯字林) in 1877, and were the pioneers of Japanese-German dictionaries in Japan*. Its predecessor was the second edition of Hepburn's Wa-Eigo Rinshūsei (和英語林集成), to which he added 1,419 words; thus it contains 24,368 words in total.
Ishimoto Iwane's "Aisho" (A Book of Love), Vol. 2 (Shōwa 9, 1934)
The title of the book is written on the left, the editor Rudolf Lehmann (1842–1914) on the right, and the publishers Kenjirō and Suikei on the left. In addition, on the right side is the title "JAPANISCHEN UND DEUTSCHEN SPRACHE" (Language of Japan and Germany) in German.
Lehmann was a German educator who worked at the Ōgakusha (Kyōto) and later taught the German language at various institutions including the University of Tōkyō, and Kaisei. He was also involved in the paper-manufacturing industry.
This dictionary will be discussed in detail in a later column.
Japanese names follow the Japanese order: surname-name.
Japanese names and words are transcribed using the Hepburn romanization method.
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