The purpose of this study is to completely review the bibliography of the Japanese vocabulary "Wae-eo Ryuhae" published in the 1780s, and to clarify its material characteristics.
In the 1780s, some Japanese interpreters compiled a collection of Japane ...
The purpose of this study is to completely review the bibliography of the Japanese vocabulary "Wae-eo Ryuhae" published in the 1780s, and to clarify its material characteristics.
In the 1780s, some Japanese interpreters compiled a collection of Japanese words and phrases, and to date there are only three copies in existence: one at the National Library of Korea, one at Komazawa University Library in Japan, and one at Manchester University Library in England. Although a certain amount of bibliographical research has been conducted on these books, there are still many unanswered questions about how they came to be. In addition, it is necessary to examine the works derived from "Wae-eo Ryuhae" from the perspective of foreign language learning.
The first step in this study was to review the bibliography of the three books of "Wae-eo Ryuhae". As a result, it became clear that the Takusoku version not only had pages copied from other books to replace the missing parts as mentioned in the previous study but also had supplementary plates newly engraved from the lost woodblocks. In addition, both the Kukdogwan version and Manchester version are clearly printed, but unlike the Kukdogwan version, the Manchester version has inscriptions in the same areas as the Takusoku version, indicating that the Kukdogwan version may have been the first printing.
Next, nothing was known about the process by which the Kukdogwan version came to be in the current collection. The research results of this paper are as follows. The Kukdogwan version was originally the former collection of Yi Myeong-hwa, a translator of Japanese in the late Joseon period. This book is believed to have been in the possession of the Hashibe family in Tsushima after passing through Waegwan. The remains of the corrections that remain in the Kukdogwan version were created at this time. Later, when Toyozo Hashibe came to live in Seoul via Busan, the book remained in Seoul and was acquired by the National Library of Korea in 1946.
The book was first published in Korea, and then introduced to Japan through Wakan and Tsushima, and was also taken abroad. The Manchester version is a typical example, but there were also other versions that were converted into Korean language study books. The Wago Ruikai, which was transcribed in the 19th century, and the Nichigo Ruikai, published in the early 20th century, have one thing in common in that they were modified from the Wae-eo Ryuhae which was a book for Koreans to learn Japanese, into a book for Japanese to learn Korean. Translation of a Comparative Vocabulary of the Chinese, Corean, and Japanese Languages, published in 1835, is a book that translates the Wae-eo Ryuhae and Cheonjamun into English for Korean (and Chinese and Japanese) learning.
The importance of this book to the study of foreign languages in the 18th~20th centuries has been clarified in detail through this study. In addition, it has been possible to supplement the previous research on the bibliography of the book, and to clarify the characteristics of foreign language learning through the process of transformation of this material.