Tō-on ortōon (唐音;English:/ˈtoʊ.ɒn/TOH-on;Japanese pronunciation:[toꜜːoɴ], "Tang sound") areJapanesekanji readings imported from China byZen monks and merchants during and after theSong dynasty, as a form ofon'yomi (音読み).[1] As withkan-on andgo-on, the "tō" in "tō-on" does not denote the Tang dynasty but is a term meaning China itself.
During theMuromachi period, tō-on was also calledsō-on (宋音,lit. Song sound). Together, tō-on and sō-on are sometimes referred to astō-sō-on (唐宋音). Unlikego-on andkan-on, which form systematic sets covering the entire character inventory,tō-on is fragmentary, consisting of pronunciations that entered alongside specific words. After the suspension ofofficial missions to Tang China, Sino-Japanese exchange resumed in the late Heian and earlyKamakura period and flourished through the Muromachi andEdo period. These readings were transmitted by Zen monks studying abroad and by merchants engaged in private trade. As a result, the Chinese sources of tō-on vary widely in both time and region.
Academically,tō-on is divided into medievaltō-on (also calledsō-on by some scholars) and early moderntō-on.[2]
InGenkai [ja], among 13,546 Sino-Japanese words listed as collected vocabulary, only 96 are classified astō-on words, indicating that the number of such words entering Japanese is extremely small.Tō-on words familiar to modern speakers are mostly based on medievaltō-on. However, identifying which everyday words aretō-on is often difficult, due to factors such as multiple possible kanji spellings, mere phonetic renderings, or hybrid forms mixed withgo-on orkan-on readings.[3]
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