JapanKnowledge
Illustrative quotations follow the definition section and are identified with an asterisk “*”.
Cited passages are enclosed in Japanese-style quotation backets「 」. In order to facilitate comprehension, punctuation marks and other aids may be added as appropriate. However, the section of the citation corresponding to the entry heading is presented in its original form whenever possible.
| a) | In general the form used in the original text is retained, but kanji are rendered in accordance with the rules specified in the paragraph titled “3. Kanji forms” below. |
| b) | Man’yōgana and Roman letters are rendered in their original forms, with their readings indicated in parentheses （ ） in katakana when necessary. However, in some cases where man’yōgana are used as kungana (訓がな；kanji used to represent kun readings of words regardless of meaning), such characters may be rendered in hiragana. |
| c) | For kanji terms corresponding to the entry heading, their readings, if supplied in the source text, are indicated in parentheses （ ） in katakana; when the original readings are uncertain, a conjectural reading may be supplied in hiragana. Documents in Chinese with marks added for rendering them into Japanese and similar materials are treated in the same fashion. |
| d) | Notes on meaning and reading of difficult characters provided on the left or right of the vertical lines in the original text are sometimes reproduced and indicated in the form of 〈注〉(chū;note). |
| e) | Yōon (拗音; contracted sounds) and sokuon (促音; germinate consonants) are indicated by smaller characters in words in which their usage can be ascertained. |
| 〈Renditions〉 | |
| a) | Citations from Japanese texts are generally given in a combination of kanji and hiragana, but katakana may be used in citations from Roman-letter documents and dictionaries. |
| b) | Citations from Man’yōshū (万葉集), Kojiki （古事記）, Nihonshoki (日本書紀), Fudoki (風土記), Kogoshūi (古語拾遺), Nihonryōiki (日本霊異記), Norito (祝詞), Senmyō (宣命), and documents in Chinese with marks added for rendering them into Japanese are generally given by transliterating them into Japanese. |
| c) | Citations from classical Chinese works and similar sources, kaeriten (返り点；marks indicating the Japanese reading of classical Chinese texts) are supplied whenever possible. |
| d) | In texts written entirely in kana, some portions of citations may be rendered in kanji to facilitate comprehension. |
| 〈Kana orthography〉 | |
| a) | Standard historical kana orthography is used in citations from Japanese-language works of the ancient to Chūsei periods. However, in citations from certain Japanese-language works of the Chūsei period such as chronicles (including Oyudonoueno nikki (「御湯殿上日記」), kyōgen, kōwaka, and otogizōshi, the kana orthography of the cited texts is retained. |
| b) | For Kinsei and later works, mainly handed down in print, the original kana orthography is retained. |
| c) | The same principles apply to furigana (ふりがな； phonetic renderings of kanji placed above or beside the kanji characters). |
| d) | Yōon and sokuon are indicated by smaller characters in words in which their usage can be ascertained. |
| a) | As a rule, the kanji forms shown are based on the jōyōkanjihyō (list of kanji for common use). However, in giving usage examples for characters having two or more forms, old forms used in the source texts may be retained, if the old forms, though having been integrated under a single jōyōkanji character, carry meanings subtly different from each other, and it is deemed necessary to make such distinctions explicit, or if the multiple forms of a character, though being currently used interchangeably, in fact have been derived from different origins (e.g.: 芸 = 藝 and 欠 = 缺), and thus there is a danger that the use of the jōyōkanji forms in place of the old forms may result in confusions with totally different characters. |
| b) | For non-jōyōkanji, the forms used in the texts cited are generally retained, but extremely irregular forms, as well as forms sharing the common origin and similar shapes with the regular ones, may be replaced by more regular ones as much as possible. |
Portions of citations from the original text that use both large and small characters for different purposes, those representing warichū (割注; notes inserted in the text in small characters, and in a double-line format), and the like are given in a single-line format. In lieu of reproducing these portions in their original forms, they may be placed in various parentheses 〈 〉（ ）〔 〕 as the occasion demands.