With the arrival of Commodore Perry, the end of Japanโs closed-nation policy, and the start of the Meiji period (1868-1912) came many upheavals to the Japanese language, especially in the written sphere. While the roots of modern Japanese can be found in the Edo period, it is in Meiji that we arrive at a unified language that is more comprehensible to modern speakers.
During this time there was a move towards Japan re-identifying itself as a nation-state. A new national identity came with the unification of many aspects, and that includes language. With many variations of Japanese throughout the country, the government needed to create a unified form of the language, intelligible by everyone. Not only this, Japanese as a written form had not evolved much in the centuries before. There was a huge gap between the grammar between its written and spoken forms. This unification of written and spoken Japanese โ called genbun icchi โ will be discussed in the next article. In this article, we’ll examine the formation of the new โstandardโ Japanese as well as the discussions on the best writing form to use.
Also In This Series:
Part 1: Origins to Nara Era
Part 2: The Birth of Kana
Part 3: Pronunciation Shifts in the Edo Period
A Common Japanese
To begin, itโs worth looking at the state of spoken Japanese around the end of the 19th century. With the removal of the class system, the new freedom of movement granted to the Japanese people meant that there would be more interaction between people of various areas, and that meant with people whose Japanese was different to one’s own. This applied especially to the population who lived on a fief. Before the Meiji period, they were not allowed to travel outside their lordโs land. Without a mutually intelligible form of Japanese, communication would be difficult, if not sometimes impossible. The government had to define a common Japanese for the entire populace.
Instead of trying to create a new form of the language, the simplest option was to select one regionโs dialect as the new standard. Although the Meiji oligarchs were mostly from the Satsuma and Chลshลซ regions, they believed the language spoken in Edo, now Tokyo, would be best. Edo was renamed Tokyo in July 1868, mere months before the Meiji period began, and became the capital in March of the next year. Although the image of Edo-style Japanese was the rougher dialect spoken by those in the Shitamachi, the government insisted that the style of speech to be adopted was the one used by the educated class and warriors โ those who lived in Yamanote.
The change was, unsurprisingly, a gradual one. The decisions took place over the course of nearly half a century, with Ueda Kazutoshi claiming in 1895 that the current Tokyo dialect (of the educated class) was fit to be used as the standard language. In 1903 the Ministry of Educationโs National Language Investigative Association (kokugo chลsa iinkai; ๅฝ่ช่ชฟๆปๅงๅกไผ) began talks to decide on what regionโs dialect to be used. In 1903, it released the first government-administered textbook, Standard Elementary Textbook (jinjล shลgaku tokuhon; ๅฐๅธธๅฐๅญฆ่ชญๆฌ). This contained middle-class Tokyo Japanese and was a way to introduce it gradually to the populace.
It was in 1913, in the second year of the Taisho period, when the National Language Investigative Association released the โvernacular lawโ (kลgลhล; ๅฃ่ชๆณ) where Tokyo-Japanese was decided to be the common language.
This definition of “Japanese” was essentially the same as Ueda Kazutoshiโs: the language used by educated, middle-class Tokyo residents. In other words, by those who lived in Yamanote. With this law, it was decided that it would act as a united, standard form of the language. Language from other regions would be accepted should they be widely intelligible. And so, other forms of the language, including Edoโs own Shitamachi Japanese, fell into the position of dialect.
Was English Almost the National Language?
An interesting backdrop to this is the well-known Mori Arinori. The first ambassador to the United States and a key member of the government, Mori sent a number of letters to several key American figures, including presidents Theodore D. Woolsey and William A. Stearne, regarding their thoughts on how best to lead Japanโs educational path. He is probably most famous for advocating for the replacement of Japanese with an improved and simplified English as the state language, to which the linguist William Dwight Whitney rebutted quite strongly.
How to Write Japanese
Before covering the linguistic changes written Japanese undertook, it’s worth looking at the discussions regarding the way in which Japanese was to be written. With the influx of western European and American culture during this time, it became clear that the alphabet used for many Western languages had an arguably far lower threshold to be able to read and write easily. After all, there are only 26 letters in the English alphabet compared to thousands of kanji. Not only this, in regard to Japanese, the choices made centuries ago meant that kanji could be read multiple ways depending on context. This made kanji far more difficult for an uneducated person to master.
But kanji was also the preserve of the educated class. And with a society that was no longer bound by class, it was imperative to bring the written language to everyone. In any case, many at the time agreed that kanji was a huge hurdle for those wanting to learn the written language, especially if we consider with hindsight that the Japanese of the time used a vast number more kanji than now. Maejima Hisokaโs ideas to abandon kanji altogether (kanji onhaishi no gi; ๆผขๅญๅพกๅปๆญขไน่ญฐ), and to simply use kana instead, sent ripples through society at the time.
Different Writing Styles
To revolutionize written Japanese, many different ideas were considered, such as the aforementioned Maejimaโs idea to only use kana, which was also supported by Yamashita Kamesaburo. During these discussions, many realized that Japanese could be written left to right in rows (like many western languages), as opposed to top to bottom columns that went right to left.
Another idea, spearheaded by Yatabe Ryลkichi, was the Romaji Movement ( (Romaji Kai (็พ ้ฆฌๅญไผ), formed in 1885; it later became the Romaji Hirome Kai (ใญใผใๅญใฒใใไผ)). Founded in 1884, it put forward the idea to write all of Japanese in a Roman alphabetized version of kana. Interestingly, this movement didnโt gather much steam as an inter-factional split in 1905 over which style of Romanization, Hepburn or the Japanese style, should be used. The proponents of the Japanese style formed the Japan Rลmaji Group (nihon romaji kai; ๆฅๆฌใญใผใๅญไผ) in 1921, which is still active today.
Finally, it is interesting to take a look at some of the other writing systems proposed during this time and into the Showa period. Kojima Ittล proposed these 24 characters, which he labelled the New Japanese Characters (ๆฅๆฌๆฐๅญ).
Much later, Nakamura Sลtarล created the Hinode Characters (ใฒใฎใงๅญ) in 1935 which he intended to replace kana.
Tลru Masayoshi published his own book on his ideas a new writing system that could replace kanji. In there, we can see his 75 new characters.
The Kanji Problem
Unlike Maejima, who sought to discard kanji, Yano Fumio was unenamored with writing Japanese solely in kana or romaji. He put forward the idea of reducing kanji (kanji setsugen ron; ๆผขๅญ็ฏๆธ่ซ). He believed the ideal format was to continue to use the mixed kanji and kana style of writing sentences, with kana also used to render the reading of kanji. This way, both meaning and pronunciation would be preserved. As the government would slowly reduce the number of kanji, people in the country could keep up with the changes.
Although it’s hard to fix a number, the number of kanji used until the Meiji period was vastly larger compared to the standard 2,136 jลyล kanji currently in use. These ranged from Fukuzawa Yukichiโs claim that two or three thousand would be enough to Yanoโs three thousand. Eventually, everyone went with Yanoโs figure. Indeed, the fact that these are the recommended reduced number, far larger than the jลyล kanji in use today, exemplifies just how many kanji were being used.
An Expanding Vocabulary
An expanding worldview comes with expanding vocabulary, and many of these new words and ideas made their way into the Japanese language via translation. The intellectuals of the time translated a large number of texts. through these, we can see new words dispersing into contemporary society.
The three major ways new words came about from foreign concepts were by:
Creating new words
This was simply the creation of new words which had concepts which did not exist within Japanese already โ ๅฝผๅฅณ (kanojo – girlfriend), ๅฒๅญฆ (tetsugaku; philosophy), ๆฐๅฉๆ ่ก (shinkon ryokou – honeymoon).
Borrowing words
Many western missionaries working in China translated a number of their concepts into Chinese, and these words were taken straight from these translated texts or dictionaries โ ้ปๅ ฑ (denpou; telegram), ๆๆ (renai; romantic love), ๅ้บ (bouken; adventure).
Reusing old words
Many older words with a similar concept were reused with the Western concept being applied to them โ ๅฐ่ฑก (inshou; impression), ๅฎถๅบญ (katei; family), ๆจฉๅฉ (kenri; right, privilege).
It is interesting to look at how these words entered contemporary use. One example we can look at is the word for love โ โrenโaiโ (ๆๆ). Although the kanji ๆ existed as a Buddhist concept, and ๆ and ่ฒๆ also existed, any of these pre-existing words in Japanese did not have the same nuance as Western โlove.โ It is natural then that it would be first used by a Japanese-speaker in a translation. Nakamura Masanao was translating Samuel Smileโs hugely popular Self-Help and decided to use renโai when translating the expression โfallen in loveโ.
Renโai was a way of putting the concept of Western love into a single word. However, this didn’t necessarily mean that the depth of its meaning was understood by a contemporary Japanese reader. Various translators attempted different methods to bring the concept across. Natsume Sosekiโs famous translation of โI love youโ as โthe moon is beautifulโ (ๆใ็ถบ้บใงใใญ), or Futabatei Shimeiโs โI would die for youโ (ๆญปใใงใใใ) show a society grappling with this concept. Even now, other indirect phrases for โI love youโ are preferred among Japanese people.
Despite these other euphemistic translations, Hida Yoshifumi tells us that by looking at contemporary dictionaries, the word renโai did eventually settle itself into the lexicon, even if it was not always used. This was aided by its wide-spread use in the popular womenโs magazine Jogaku Zasshi (ๅฅณๅญฆ้่ช).
Conclusion
The Meiji period brought about a systematic change towards the Japanese language. By deciding upon a mutually intelligible form of Japanese, communication could be made feasible between people from distant regions. Not only this, but the systematic review of the written language and the debate surrounding the number of kanji made Japanese easier to learn for everyone – not just the elites. Finally, translations helped to bring a wealth of new vocabulary.
Our next article in our series will continue with the Meiji period and will focus on the closing gap between Japanese in its spoken and written forms.
Sources
Yamaguchi, Nakami, Nihongo no rekishi, 29th edn., (Tokyo: Iwanami shoten, 2019)
Hida, Yoshifumi, Meiji umare no nihongo, (Tokyo: Tankosha, 2002)
Mori, Arinori, Education in Japan: A Series of Letters (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1878) Retrieved from https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=inu.30000067351589
Fukuda, Masata, ๆๆฒป็ฟป่จณ่ชใฎใใใใใ (n.d) Retrieved from https://www.lang.nagoya-u.ac.jp/proj/sosho/7/fukuda.pdf
Fukumoto, Miwako, ๆฃฎๆ็คผใฎๆฅๆฌ่ชๅปๆญข่ซใป่ฑ่ชๆก็จ่ซใไธญๅฟใซ (2016) Retrieved from http://alce.jp/journal/dat/14_162.pdf
Toru, Masayoshi, ๆผขๅญใซไปฃใฏใๆฐๆฅๆฌใฎๆๅญใจๅ ถใฎ็ถดๅญๆณ (1919) Retrieved from https://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/942751
Yatabe, Fumio, ๆผขๅญ็ฏๆธ่ซ (n.d.) Retrieved from http://kokugomondaikyo.sakura.ne.jp/ha/ronsou3-11.htm
ๆฅๆฌ่ชใจๆฅๆฌๆๅ (n.d.) Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/2027/inu.30000067351589?urlappend=%3Bseq=212
ๅธธ็จๆผขๅญ่กจ (n.d.) Retrieved from https://www.bunka.go.jp/kokugo_nihongo/sisaku/joho/joho/kijun/naikaku/pdf/joyokanjihyo_20101130.pdf
Romazi Aieuo (n.d.) Retrieved from https://green.adam.ne.jp/roomazi/undoo.html
Nihon Romaji Kai (n.d.) Retrieved from http://www.roomazi.org/
Interesting Docs on Romaji
http://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/992339 http://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/862107
