Etymology of Mummy -- miira

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Ross Bender

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Jan 20, 2011, 1:31:45 PM1/20/11
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The modern Japanese word for mummy is "miira" (katakana - ミイラ) derived from Portuguese "mirra", meaning "myrrh", which is turn comes from Latin "myrrha" and may derive from Akkadian "murru" via Greek.

The Chinese word (from the new Oxford Chinese Dictionary) is 木乃伊, pronounced something like "munaiyi" (can't do the diacritics).

Some questions:

1) Does anyone know of a citation for "mirra" in Portuguese sources on Japan, and when this came into use as "miira" in Japanese?

2) Does anyone know the etymology of the Chinese term?

3) The Japanese Buddhist priests who self-mummified were sometimes known as undergoing a process of attaining Buddhahood in this body (sokushin joubutsu 即身成仏), but was there a specific term for them which signified "mummy"?

4) The term "hotoke" can mean both "Buddha" and "corpse", but when did this identification arise?

(Attached are the kanji in case they are garbled in this message.)

These questions are prompted by the arrival of the Tarim mummies in the exhibition "Secrets of the Silk Road" at the University of Pennsylvania Museum.

http://www.penn.museum/


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Ross Bender
http://rossbender.org
mummy.doc

WOLFF Dennis

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Jan 20, 2011, 5:43:36 PM1/20/11
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According to http://baike.baidu.com/view/1943.htm the Chinese word 木乃伊 (Mùnǎiyī) is a phonetic transcription of either the English "mummy" or the Persian word "mumiai" into Chinese.
The kanji 木乃伊 for ミイラ can be found in Japanese texts sometimes as well.

May someone with more knowledge on the topic answer the remaining questions.

Dennis Wolff



Ross Bender <ross....@gmail.com> wrote:

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Mark Schumacher

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Jan 20, 2011, 8:54:22 PM1/20/11
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Dear Ross-san

See "Materia Medica in Edo Period Japan, The Case of Mummy, Takai Ranzan's Shokuji kai, Part Two, by Michael Kinski, Berlin. 
From Japonica Humboldtiana 9 (2005). http://edoc.hu-berlin.de/japonica-hu/9/kinski-michael-55/PDF/kinski.pdf
  • Various citations for the origin of the Japanese term ミイラ appear on pages 64-66 (Kinski).
  • Various citations of the Chinese term 木乃伊 appear on page 74 (Kinski).
For example, on page 64, Kinski writes: "In the Enlarged [Edition of] Deliberations on the Trade [between] the Flowering [Middle] and the Barbarians (Zôho Ka i tsûshô kô, 1708), Nishikawa Joken (1648–1724), a scholar with roots in the merchant milieu of Nagasaki, mentions miira as one of the products brought to Japan by Dutch traders and he comments: "There are various explanations [about this]. It is said to be [made from] human flesh flavoured and mixed together [with other substances]." etc. etc. Kinski gives numerous other citations as well, along with the Chinese characters, and provides explanations for other terms meaning "mummy" in China and Japan.

OTHER INTERESTING RESOURCES
hope this helps
mark in kamakura



ROSS BENDER WROTE

Marc Adler

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Jan 20, 2011, 11:39:27 PM1/20/11
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On Thu, Jan 20, 2011 at 4:43 PM, WOLFF Dennis <touch_my_fea...@yahoo.co.jp> wrote:
 
According to http://baike.baidu.com/view/1943.htm the Chinese word 木乃伊 (Mùnǎiyī) is a phonetic transcription of either the English "mummy" or the Persian word "mumiai" into Chinese.
The kanji 木乃伊 for ミイラ can be found in Japanese texts sometimes as well.

May someone with more knowledge on the topic answer the remaining questions.


For what it's worth, the Wikipedia entry has quite a bit to say about the Japanese and Chinese words: http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%9F%E3%82%A4%E3%83%A9

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