Draft:Eiwa taiyaku shūchin jisho

Eiwa-Taiyaku-Shuchin-Jisho [英和大役袖珍辞書] ("A Pocket Dictionary of the English and Japanese Language") was the first English-Japanese dictionary, edited by Tatsunosuke Hori in 1862 and published by the Bansho Shirabesho (Institute for the Study of Barbarian Books).

This dictionary was based on H. Picard's English-Dutch dictionary, A New Pocket Dictionary of the English-Dutch and Dutch-English Languages; the Dutch items were translated into Japanese.

The significance of this dictionary for the rapid modernization/industrialization of Japan during the Meiji era is discussed in "Codification, Technology Absorption, and the Globalization of the Industrial Revolution": "This project was the first step in what would become a massive government effort to codify and absorb Western science."

Juhasz et al demonstrate an inflection point in the rate at which technical books were published in Japan, with a dramatic increase corresponding to the 1862 publication of Eiwa taiyaku shūchin jisho. Only 200 copies were published in 1862; with the publication of thousands in 1867, the rate of publication of technical books again increased dramatically (see Figure 7).

"The Eiwa taiyaku shūchin jisho...ushered in the age of English studies" (in Japan)