Gyorinsuji

Gyorinsuji is a book compiled by Amenomori Hoshu (1668–1755) and was the most widely used textbook for learning the Korean language in Japan from the Edo period through the Meiji period. This complete set, in movable-type printing, comprises four volumes in four books and is made up of sixty-seven entries in total. Under each entry, a Chinese-character headword is explained in Hangul, or sentences containing the term are set out side by side in Japanese and Hangul, giving the book the form of a bilingual parallel text convenient for foreign-language study. This copy is the first edition of Gyorinsuji, published in 1881 (the fourteenth year of Meiji). Its manuscript was completed in 1880, and overall compilation was directed by Urase Hiroshi, a professor of the Korean language at the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs; it is understood to have been compiled and published as a Korean-language textbook to train the Korean-language interpreters Japan needed for diplomacy and trade with Joseon. According to the notes on compiler and publisher at the front of the book, it was originally compiled by Amenomori Hoshu of Tsushima, who handled trade with Joseon, and circulated afterwards in manuscript form; at least 130 years later it was revised and expanded by Urase Hiroshi and, in 1881 (the fourteenth year of Meiji), printed in movable type and made widely available for the first time. The Korean and Japanese used in this copy, held by Busan Metropolitan Citizens' Library, reflect the spoken idiom current in the late Joseon period, and as linguistic material showing the Korean and Japanese of the time it is a valuable resource for research into the history of both languages in the late Joseon era. The corrections visible in the book — additions in black ink, in red ink, and in pencil — are reflected in the 1883 (sixteenth year of Meiji) Jaegan Gyorinsuji (Reprinted Gyorinsuji), showing the changes made to the content of Gyorinsuji over time; this gives it considerable bibliographic value as well. As the only surviving first edition preserved in Korea, it is also a heritage item of great value for its rarity.

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Where it is

Region

Busanjin-gu, Busan

Designation

Cultural Heritage Material · 문화유산자료