- Wakan Sansai Zue
[
Sea lion (right) andfur seal , "Wakan Sansai Zue", vol 38 p. 72, (ca. 1712).] nihongo|"Wakan Sansai Zue"|和漢三才図会| is aJapan eseencyclopedia published in1713 in theEdo period . It consists of 105 volumes in 81 books. Its name means "Japanese and Chinese illustration of the three worlds". The three worlds, or nihongo|"sansai"|三才|, of the title, are heaven, earth, and man. Its compiler wasTerashima orTerajima (Nihongo|Terajima Ryōan|寺島良安|), a doctor fromOsaka . It describes and illustrates various activities of daily life, such as carpentry and fishing, as well as plants and animals, and constellations. As seen from the title of the book (和 (wa), which means Japan and 漢 (kan), which means China), Terajima's idea was based on a Chinese encyclopedia of theMing times, namely "Sancai Tuhui " ("Pictorial..." or "Illustrated Compendium of the Three Powers") byWang Qi (1607 ), known in Japan as the nihongo|"Sansai Zue"|三才図会|. Reproductions of the "Wakan Sansai Zue" are still in print in Japan.External links
*ja icon The images of the book are available in the [http://kindai.ndl.go.jp/index.html Digital Library] of the
National Diet Library , Japan.
* [http://www.rice.edu//fondren/erc/projects/jingban/ A map sample from the Chinese encyclopedia]
* [http://www.lib.kyushu-u.ac.jp/michel/08/index08.html Samples on the human body from the Japanese encyclopedia]
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