YAMASHITA, Shigemasa.

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Zoho Onkun: Taizen hayabiki setsuyoshu ("Enlarged Quick-Search Dictionary of Everyday Words, Expanded, with Multiple Readings"). First edition of this early-modern Japanese dictionary designed for easy searching. Based on the famous Setsuyoshu, this edition organizes its entries in a new, more intuitive fashion based on syllables. The number of entries is also increased. Setsuyoshu was one of the earliest Japanese dictionaries, compiled in the mid-15th century, and "remained popular for so long that [its name] was used as a generic term for Japanese dictionaries" (Nakao, p. 37). Over 180 editions were published in the Edo period and it came to exert significant influence over the development of the Japanese language overall. Provenance: the reference copy of Gilbert and Rivington Limited, with their 1884 stamp to the rear free endpaper of Volume I and front pastedown of Volume II. Then in the library of the Japan Society, with the society's gilt logo blocked onto the custom folding boxes and its shelf labels on the spines. Founded in 1891 at premises in Hanover Square, the Japan Society of London (the final two words of the name later dropped) has been at the centre of British appreciation of Japanese history and culture ever since, hosting lectures, royal visitors, and curating the Britain and Japan: Biographical Portraits book series. Its catalogue note is loosely inserted.

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