Tetsuji Morohashi

Tetsuji Morohashi was a renowned Japanese lexicographer and professor at the University of Tokyo, best known for compiling the Dai Kan-Wa Jiten, a comprehensive Japanese-Chinese dictionary. His work was influenced by Ferdinand de Saussure, a Swiss linguist, and Bernhard Karlgren, a Swedish sinologist. Morohashi's dictionary is still widely used today, alongside other notable works such as the Kangxi Dictionary and the Hanyu Da Zidian. He was also familiar with the works of Ludwig Wittgenstein, an Austrian philosopher, and Noam Chomsky, an American linguist.

● Early Life and Education

Tetsuji Morohashi was born in Japan in 1883 and spent his early years studying Classical Chinese and Japanese literature at the University of Tokyo, where he was influenced by professors such as Natsume Soseki and Mori Ogai. He also studied French and German, which helped him to understand the works of Ferdinand de Saussure and Leonard Bloomfield, an American linguist. Morohashi's education was further enriched by his familiarity with the works of Immanuel Kant, a German philosopher, and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, a German philosopher. During his time at the university, he was also exposed to the ideas of Marxism and Socialism, which were being discussed by intellectuals such as Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.

● Career

Morohashi began his career as a professor at the University of Tokyo, where he taught Japanese and Chinese literature. He was also a visiting scholar at Harvard University, where he studied under Sergei Eisenstein, a Soviet film director, and Roman Jakobson, a Russian-American linguist. Morohashi's work was influenced by the May Fourth Movement in China and the Taisho period in Japan, which saw a surge in interest in Western culture and modernism. He was also familiar with the works of James Joyce, an Irish novelist, and Virginia Woolf, a British novelist. Morohashi's career was marked by his interactions with notable figures such as Rabindranath Tagore, an Indian poet, and Albert Einstein, a German-American physicist.

● Editorial Work

Morohashi's most notable work is the Dai Kan-Wa Jiten, a comprehensive Japanese-Chinese dictionary that took over 30 years to complete. The dictionary is considered one of the most authoritative works on Sino-Japanese vocabulary and is still widely used today, alongside other notable works such as the Oxford English Dictionary and the Grand Robert. Morohashi's editorial work was influenced by the Encyclopédie of Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d'Alembert, and the Britannica Encyclopedia of Archibald Constable and Colin Macfarquhar. He was also familiar with the works of Emmanuel Levinas, a French philosopher, and Martin Heidegger, a German philosopher. Morohashi's dictionary is a testament to his dedication to the study of Japanese and Chinese languages, and his work has been recognized by institutions such as the Académie française and the Royal Society.

● Legacy

Tetsuji Morohashi's legacy is profound, and his work continues to influence scholars of Japanese and Chinese languages. His dictionary is considered a masterpiece of lexicography, and his contributions to the field of linguistics are still recognized today. Morohashi's work has been compared to that of Samuel Johnson, an English writer, and Noah Webster, an American lexicographer. He was also influenced by the works of Friedrich Nietzsche, a German philosopher, and Sigmund Freud, an Austrian psychoanalyst. Morohashi's legacy extends beyond the field of linguistics, and his work has been recognized by institutions such as the Nobel Prize Committee and the Japanese Ministry of Education. His dictionary is a testament to his dedication to the study of Japanese and Chinese languages, and his work continues to inspire scholars such as Michel Foucault, a French philosopher, and Jacques Derrida, a French philosopher. Category:Lexicographers