大和魂

大和魂

Japanese

Kanji in this term
大	和	魂
やまと		たましい > だましい Grade: S
Grade: 1	Grade: 3
jukujikun		kun’yomi

Etymology

Compound of 大和(やまと) (Yamato, “Yamato Province → Japan”) + 魂(たましい) (tamashii, “soul, spirit”).

The tamashii changes to damashii as an instance of rendaku (連濁).

Pronunciation

• (Tokyo) やまとだ​ましい [yàmátódáꜜmàshìì] (Nakadaka – [4])[1][2][3]
• IPA^(key): [ja̠ma̠to̞da̠ma̠ɕiː]

Noun

大和(やまと)魂(だましい) • (Yamato-damashii) ^{←やまとだましひ (yamatodamasifi)?}

1. the Japanese spirit
   • 1859, tanka by Yoshida Shōin (also Aikoku Hyakunin Isshu, poem 77)

     身(み)はたとひ武蔵(むさし)の野辺(のべ)に朽(く)ちぬとも留(とど)め置(お)かまし大和(やまと)魂(だましひ)

     mi wa tatoi Musashi no nobe ni kuchinu to mo todome okamashi Yamato-damashii

     Though my corpse rot beneath the ground of Musashi, my soul remains forever Japanese[4]

2. (figuratively) the unique qualities or traits of the Japanese people

Synonyms

• 大和(やまと)心(ごころ) (Yamato-gokoro)
• 和魂(わこん) (wakon)

References

1. 2006, 大辞林 (Daijirin), Third Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, →ISBN
2. 1998, NHK日本語発音アクセント辞典 (NHK Japanese Pronunciation Accent Dictionary) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: NHK, →ISBN
3. 1997, 新明解国語辞典 (Shin Meikai Kokugo Jiten), Fifth Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, →ISBN
4. Yoel Hoffmann (1998), Peter Koslowski, editor, Japanese Death Poems: Written by Zen Monks and Haiku Poets on the Verge of Death, Tuttle Publishing, →ISBN, page 55