While in Japan recently I attended the main exhibit of the National Film Archive which told the technical history of Japanese film through artifacts, beginning with the first film projectors. These were Japanese modifications on the camera obscura, with a casing made of wood, projecting the images of painted glass stills on a large wall while a speaker/singer performed the story.
Today I came across 映画 for “movie” and I felt it pognaintly conveyed the origins of film by referencing the camera obscura through the “映” character.
I don’t know if this is the true etymology of the word, only that these things came together in my mind while doing my lessons today. If someone know’s better, could you please advise me with a reference?
Yeah, the article on the Japanese Wikipedia says the original meaning was 画を映すこと or 映された画, and thus also included photography. Over time the meaning shifted to 画像を映し出すこと or 映し出される画像 and then 動きのある画像.
Thanks Belthazar I’m not able to read the wiki yet but I look forward to the day I can. I translated the parts of your answer I didn’t understand and I definitely see the terminology evolving alongside the technology. Do the Japanese wiki pages commonly include etymology?
Thanks for the response. I do have a big interest in etymology in English (and now JP) and did stop by the EN wiktionary page before asking here because I think I should exhaust my existing resources before asking the community.
Since you mention the JP wiktionary as a resource, I’m interested, but I’ve had poor results with machine translators. How can I access that info without losing accuracy? If I can’t rely on the information then I’d rather wait until I’ve progressed to your/Belthazar’s level, where reading comes naturally, before indulging too much in etymology (which can become really involved study for me).
I was just mentioning it as a general (and probably for later) approach/resource. Not necessarily something you should do right now (that’s up to you of course). Sorry if I was unclear about that
I’m not able to read the wiki yet but I look forward to the day I can. I translated the parts of your answer I didn’t understand and I definitely see the terminology evolving alongside the technology. Do the Japanese wiki pages commonly include etymology?