日本風土記山歌註解

Abstract

he Jih-pen-feng-t'u-chi 日本風土記, 5 vols., an appendix to the Ch'uan- che-ping-chih-k'ao 全浙兵制考, written by Hou Chi-kao 侯繼高 in the Ming Dynasty in China, contains about 1, 100 Japanese words, including the tanka 短歌 poems, etc. These Japanese words are transliterated into Chinese characters, most of which are based on the Mandarin phonetic system. There are some, however, which seemed to have been transcribed into characters representing the dialect of the Wu 呉 district where the author lived. As material for the historical study of the Japanese language in the 16th century, these words are just as significant as the various Japanese publications made by the Portuguese and issued by the early Jesuit Mission. Among others the twelve Shan-ko 山歌 and other Japanese popular songs contained in the 5th volume can be regarded as songs sung by the Japanese Wako 倭寇 pirates who plundered the coasts of Chiang-su 江蘇 and Che-chiang 浙江 at that time, and they arouse our interest all the more when compared with the orthodox tanka poems. However, as these songs are written in the above-mentioned complicated system of Chinese letters, there are many difficulties in interpreting them. In fact, there have been hitherto a number of misinterpretations regarding them. In this paper I have tried to read them correctly in accordance with philological method, and to clarify their great value as material for the historical study of the Japanese language.