Online dictionary of history and traditions in Japan: Jindai moji

This is the online Japanese dictionary developed by Free Light Software. With our tool, you can find easily an equivalent Japanese word from English, or send queries to Japanese search engines without knowing Japanese translation. Click on a Japanese word to browse in Japanese search engines. Click on a globe icon to find the position of a locality on Japanese map (maybe take a few seconds to display). The dictionary of Japanese general terms is available at Online Japanese dictionary.

French version

Jindai moji

神代文字
alternative words: Jindaimoji, Holly script, Shinto script
keywords: korea , mystery , shintoism
related topics: Invasion of Korea , Shintoism , Nara period
related web sites: http://www.age.ne.jp/x/oohashi/ , http://www.ne.jp/asahi/kami/asi-pon/jindai.html
explanation: There exist many shinto documents written with holly scripts (jaindai moji) such as "Uetsu fumi" or "Hotsuma zutae", being pretended by the nationalists that Japan should have had her own scripts before the introduction of kanji characters. They are all phonetic scripts based on 5 vowels so they should be invented after Nara period when Japanese language had 8 vowels. They may have originated from Korean alphabet, hangul, that Japanese brought during Hideyoshi's Korean campaign.