Study of the Original Japanese Names (Yamato Kotoba) of Human Internal Organs Appeared in the Japanese Classical documents

Abstract

The present Japanese anatomical names of human body parts have been deeply influenced by the Kampo (traditional Chinese and Korean) Medicine. When this Kampo medicine was introduced to Japan, the classical Chinese terminology of human body based on the Kampo Medical Philosophy was also imported. Although Norinaga Motoori, the great Japanese historian in the Edo period, wrote in his commentary book of the Kojiki, namely Kojiki-den, that “Most Japanese people of the ancient time must call all the internal organs as one same word of ‘Kimo’, we can actually find the distinctive original Japanese names of each major organs, such as liver, kidney, spleen etc. in the classical dictionary compiled in Heian-period. In this study, the author collects the original Japanese name (Yamato Kotoba) of each internal organ in the Japanese classical documents, especially the ancient dictionaries complied in the Heian and Kamakura periods. These collected words of the internal organs were classified according to the several anatomical organ systems mostly used by the present anatomical textbooks, and also added some comments from the anatomical and linguistic viewpoint. This study would contribute to the understanding of the ancient Japanese language and the concept of the ancient Japanese people to the human body.