Nippo Jisho

The Nippo Jisho (日葡辞書, literally the "Japanese–Portuguese Dictionary") or Vocabvlario da Lingoa de Iapam (Vocabulário da Língua do Japão in modern Portuguese) was a Japanese to Portuguese dictionary published in Nagasaki, Japan in 1603. It contains entries for 32,293 Japanese words in Portuguese. Only four copies of the original 1603 edition exist. Facsimile editions were published in Japan in 1960 by Iwanami Shoten and again in 1973 and 1975 by Bensey Publishing. The Bensey reproduction is generally considered the clearer and more legible. A 1630 translation into Spanish published in Manila, an 1869 translation into French, and a 1980 translation into Japanese (by Iwanami Shoten) also exist. There is no translation into English. The Society of Jesus (commonly known as the Jesuits), with the cooperation of Japanese people, compiled the dictionary over several years. They intended it to serve the need of missionaries for language study and research. The Portuguese priest João Rodrigues...