Here we publically release under the title "Corpus of Historical Japanese Nara Period Series I, Man'yōshū," data for whole works in Man'yōshū, and under the title "Corpus of Historical Japanese Nara Period Series II, Senmyō," data for 62 Imperial Edicts in the "Shoku Nihongi", and under the title "Historical Corpus of Japanese, Nara Period Series III Norito," data for the 27 norito (liturgical texts) compiled in the 8th volume of the “Engishiki”.
In addition to the "readings" (pronunciations), part-of-speech classifications, and other morphological information annotated in all of the texts, the identity of the composer is also annotated. Note that the language in the corpus is the original language of the classical texts, and modern translations are not provided.
The texts in the Nara Period Series, Volume I are based on the Shinpen Nihon Koten Bungaku Zenshū (Shogakukan Publishing), JapanKnowledge.
Please read before using.
We have established a link from the Corpus of Historical Japanese, Nara Period Series (Volume I: the Man'yōshū) to the Shinpen Nihon Koten Bungaku Zenshū (Shogakukan) in JapanKnowledge.
From any entry in the list of examples in the search results from the online search application Chunagon, it is now possible to jump directly to the corresponding page in the Shinpen Nihon Koten Bungaku Zenshū in JapanKnowledge, which contains the source text, a Modern Japanese translation, and footnotes. Users can refer to translations and notes while they analyze Classical Japanese language through corpora.
Presentations of research results using the Corpus of Historical Japanese must include a citation taking the general form of the example below (with appropriate modifications depending on the version and the date of access):
* As long as one of either the version or the date of access is clearly cited, the other can be omitted, as below:
Users will need to access the Corpus of Historical Japanese through the online search engine Chunagon. Completion of a Users Licensing Agreement is required.
Please refer to the following: The Corpus of Historical Japanese: How to apply
* Titles are current with the time of development.
The corpus compilation was supported by the "Construction of Diachronic Corpora and New Developments in Research on the History of Japanese" (2016-) project and JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number JP15H01883 (2015-2019).
In the "Shoku Nihongi" (a historical record of the Nara and Early Heian Periods) there are 62 Senmyō (Imperial Edicts), and the part that these comprise has been incorporated into the present resource. As texts written employing Man'yōgana (wherein a given character corresponds to a phonemic unit) to represent the native Japanese of the period, these Senmyō are regarded as being crucial data for research into a historical period of the Japanese language for which native Japanese sources are scarce.
This corpus has the following characteristics:
The main text for Nara Period Series II: Senmyō is based on text data from Kitagawa, Kazuhide (1982) Shoku Nihongi Senmyō. Kōhon. Sōsakuin [Imperial Edicts from the Shoku-Nihongi: Critical text and general index].
In principle the entirety of a given text is taken as the object for annotation. Introductions, prefaces, publishing information, front matter, back matter, cover, speaker "cues" and the like are all included, but all such elements are distinguished as being separate from the main text. However, frontispiecies (illustration) and advertisements are considered outside the coverage of texts.
Please read before using.
Presentations of research results using the Corpus of Historical Japanese must include a citation taking the general form of the example below (with appropriate modifications depending on the version and the date of access):
* As long as one of either the version or the date of access is clearly cited, the other can be omitted, as below:
Users will need to access the Corpus of Historical Japanese through the online search engine Chunagon. Completion of a Users Licensing Agreement is required.
Please refer to the following: The Corpus of Historical Japanese: How to apply
* Titles are current with the time of development.
The corpus compilation was supported by the "Construction of Diachronic Corpora and New Developments in Research on the History of Japanese" (2016-) project and JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number JP15H01883 (2015-2019).
Comprised of 50 volumes, the "Engishiki" is a codification of laws and customs from the Heian period. The work as a whole was completed in AD 927, but as orally transmitted texts dating from before the Nara period (AD 710 to 794) to the beginning of the Heian period (794 to 1185), the 27 norito compiled in the 8th volume are understood as preserving various aspects of the Japanese language of ancient times, including textual style, orthography, vocabulary, grammatical constructions, etc. The original text is written entirely in kanji (Chinese characters), but in parts, manyōgana (i.e., kanji used phonographically) are employed. In an orthographic style known as "senmyōgaki", inflectional endings and dependent words (verbal suffixes, post-positional particles, etc.) are written in manyōgana smaller, while the rest of the text is written in logographic kanji larger, and the Native Japanese language norito written in this senmyōgaki style count as crucial materials for understanding the Japanese language of ancient times, for which materials in Native Japanese language (at this historical period, "Old Japanese") are scarce.
This corpus has the following characteristics:
The main text for Nara Period Series III Norito is based on kundoku (i.e., Native Japanese language rendering) text data from Okimori, Takuya (1995) "Tōkyō kokuritsu hakubutsukan zōhon Engishiki norito sōsakuin [Comprehensive Index of Norito from the Engishiki held at the Tokyo National Museum], (Kotenseki sakuin sōsho [Classical Text Index Series])", Koten Kenkyūkai.
The entirety of each text are taken as the objects of annotation.
Please read before using.
From any entry in the list of examples in the search results from the online search application Chūnagon, it is now possible to jump directly from the Historical Corpus of Japanese, Nara Period Series III Norito to corresponding photographic reproductions (through the “e-Museum” system for making public high-definition images of the National Treasures and Important Cultural Properties) of the “Engishiki” held in the Tokyo National Museum which served as the source text for Okimori, Takuya (1995) “Tōkyō kokuritsu hakubutsukan zōhon Engishiki norito sōsakuin [Comprehensive Index of Norito from the Engishiki held at the Tokyo National Museum], (Kotenseki sakuin sōsho [Classical Text Index Series])”, Koten Kenkyūkai, this latter volume being the basis for the creation of the corpus text.
Presentations of research results using the Corpus of Historical Japanese must include a citation taking the general form of the example below (with appropriate modifications depending on the version and the date of access):
* As long as one of either the version or the date of access is clearly cited, the other can be omitted, as below:
Users will need to access the Corpus of Historical Japanese through the online search engine Chunagon. Completion of a Users Licensing Agreement is required.
Please refer to the following: The Corpus of Historical Japanese: How to apply
* Titles are current with the time of development.
The corpus compilation was supported by the "Construction of Diachronic Corpora and New Developments in Research on the History of Japanese" (2016-2021) project "Refining the Corpus of Historical Japanese with Information on Notation and Bibliographical Form."