口碑

• 読み: こうひ
• ローマ字: kōhi
• 漢字の分解: 口 (ko/kuchi) — mouth; 碑 (hi) — stone monument, inscription
• 発音: /koː.çi/

意味

Oral tradition; popular legend; lore passed down by word of mouth. A story or belief transmitted across generations through speech rather than writing.

A formal noun describing knowledge, legend, or custom preserved through spoken transmission rather than written record. In historical and folklore studies, 口碑 is an important source of information about communities that lacked written records. It stands in contrast to 文献 (written sources), and its study is central to oral history and ethnography.

例文

1. その伝説は文字に残らず、口碑として地域の人々に長く伝わってきた。
2. 口碑によれば、この山には昔から霊力を持つ神が宿るとされてきた。
3. 地域の口碑を丹念に収集することで、文献に現れない歴史の断片が見えてくる。

使い方ガイド

場面: folklore, oral history, ethnography, regional culture

トーン: neutral

起源と歴史

Compound of 口 (ko/kuchi, mouth) and 碑 (hi, stone monument/inscription). The combination is poetic: even without a physical stone monument, the mouth itself becomes the medium that preserves and transmits memory across time.

文化的背景

時代: Ancient–Modern

世代: Adults

社会的背景: Academic