Saito's Japanese English Dictionary

Hardback. Fair. The Nichieisha, Tokyo, 1928; large 8vo, 150 x 225mm but also 135mm thick; half roan gilt, burgundy cloth sides, leather somewhat rubbed and worn but the binding itself mostly fairly firm and solid, allowing for the significant size of the book itself; however, the front hinge is weak, being externally cracked along its length and the front board now open to being moved a little side to side but firm on the inside hinge; end papers somewhat browned and with small tears and the edges of the volume dusty but internally clean although the first three dictionary pages have some careful red crayon underlinings of words; pp 6, [2], 4640. The work, as explained by the author in the preface, is a hugely ambitious undertaking to render Japanese words into English, something he came to realise was impossible to complete. He argues, however, that such a lexicon can approximate completeness if it aims also at explanation, explanation being the analysis of existing forms, these having themselves limits. He introduces his views on the different types of English such as primary or beginner's, common or standard English, and higher English, which he terms practical, technical or literary English, duly deciding that the English of the dictionary must be standard English with occasional forays into higher English. The form the dictionary takes is to list the Japanese words in a transliterated alphabet followed by bracketed kanji in two forms, the English phrase equating to the Japanese and then many examples of both Japanese and its English translations relevant to that entry, the Japanes sometimes including kana. NOTE given that the book weighs almost 4kg carriage both within and outside the UK will require a premium, the exact amount dependent on location and form. For particularly distant locations such as the US (on account of its having left the Universal Postal Union rather than the distance) or Australasia the total carriage cost will be substantial and somewhere around £25 sea mail.