Inochi, seimei, vie, Leben

In modern Japanese there are two words, inochi and seimei, which are equivalent to the English word ‘life’. The word inochi (9) (pronounced ‘ee-know-chee’) is commonly used among ordinary Japanese when they refer to everyday phenomena concerning life, death, and nature, while the word seimei (10) does not enjoy such a wide use. Seimei is an academic word mainly used in the fields of biology, medicine, philosophy, and law. Historically speaking, the word seimei was rediscovered from old usages when [86/87] translating the European words ‘life’, ‘vie’ and ‘Leben’ in the Meiji era (19thcentury), and Japanese have accepted it as an academic and/or scientific term. The word inochi has a much longer history than seimei. This word is found in ancient literature such as the Man’yoshu and Kojiki (8th century). Inochi has become established as one of the most popular words in Japanese. Today even a primary school student knows the word inochi, but he/she doesn’t necessarily know the word seimei. Hence, when studying the images of life in contemporary Japan, it is the images of inochi that should be researched.

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The Concept of Inochi (life) (1991)
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