Daijirin

Sanseido specifically created Daijirin to compete with Iwanami's profitable Kōjien dictionary, which was a longtime bestseller through three editions (1955, 1969, and 1983).

The first edition of Daijirin (1988) had 220,000 headword entries and included encyclopedic content in numerous charts, tables, and illustrations.

While Kōjien was printed in black and white, Sanseido included 19 two-color illustrations for topics like the seasons (with kigo), linguistics (synonymy), and Japanese language (Man'yōgana).

They additionally bundled the so-called "Super" version Sūpā Daijirin (スーパー大辞林) CD-ROM with other Sanseido Japanese and English dictionaries, plus pronunciation sound files.

To promote the third edition, Sanseido launched a novel "Dual" service, the Dyuaru Daijirin (デュアル大辞林), allowing purchasers of the printed version to register for free online dictionary access.

[1] Nippon Telegraph and Telephone's "Goo Lab" provides a server that allows free online searching of the second edition Sūpā Daijirin.

Daijirin entries encompass diverse vocabulary, including modern and classical Japanese words, scientific terminology, proper names, alphabetical abbreviations (like NG "no good; outtake, blooper"), and yojijukugo idioms.

The result, for a person reading modern Japanese, is that Daijirin is the most likely to list the intended meaning where it can be found easily.