Tamil & Japanese

[nas_ng at lms420.jsc.nasa.gov]

June 30, 1995

   Tamil & Japanese
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Here are some random things that come to my mind - the views
of an interested outsider for the field of linguitics/humanities.

Any additional information will be great,
n. ganesan
nas_ng at lms461.jsc.nasa.gov

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The early poems of Japanese literature and Tamil Sangam poetry have several
similarities. Especially, the tamil akam poems describing "interior landscape"
(See A. K. Ramanujan's aesthetic translations) and Japanese
love poems. Sam Hamill 1) Only companion: Japanese poems of love
and longing, Shambala/ Random House. 1992 160 p.  and 2) Love poems from the
Japanese. Shambala, 1994, 129 p.
(early Japanese poetry 5-7th century and tamil sangam age, 1st century b.c.
to 3 century a.d.)
Also, see irAma. kurunAtan, cangkap pATalum jappAniyak kavitaiyum,
kalaignan patippakam, Madras, 1986, 112 p.

I hear that Shuzo Matsunaga has translated kuRaL into Japanese.
Do you have the bibliographic details? I want to buy a copy.

Nowadays, lot of tiny poems modelled on Japanese Haiku are being written
in Tamil. After all, Tamil is eminently suitable to write poetry
with "uLLuRai poruL" and "iRaicci". eg.,
ce. centil kumAr, nanaiyAta nilA (haikku), ceyyARu, 1990,
tamizanpan, cUriyap piRaikaL: jappAniya haikku vaTiva kavitaikaL,
narmatA, patippkam. 1985, 83 p.
etc.,

Susumu Ono and A. Shanmugadas (Jaffna), Worldview and rituals
among Japanese and Tamils. Tokyo, Japan, 1985, 220 p.

Susumu Ono 1) Nihongo Izen (Influence on Japanese from Tamil language)
Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1987, 346 p.

2) Nihongo to Tamirugo, 1981 Tokyo (Japanese and Tamil)

Shichiro Murayama, Nihongo: Tamirugo Kigensetsu hihan.
Tokyo, 1982
(Japanese and tamil: Comparative grammar)


Shu Hikosaka along with Dr. John Samuel have founded a research institute
in Madras. Several good works are getting published there.
Hikosaka is a scholar of Tamil Buddhism.

Bodhi Daruma, founder of Zen,  (Note the 'u' letter. This is unlike 
Bodhi Dharma of Sanskrit/Indo Aryan tradition) hailed from Kanchipuram
and is popular in Japan. 

Japanese alphabets are arranged almost like Tamil (tamiz neTungkaNakku).
(in the katakana system?) Japanese script is called Kanchi script.

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