讃美歌 / 賛美歌

讃美歌 (Sanbika or Sambika) is one of the commonest Japanese expressions meaning "hymn"; since Japanese nouns are the same in the singular and plural, 讃美歌 also means "hymns", and thus by extension "hymnal"; many Japanese hymnals have had precisely this title, and others incorporate it. The term "Sanbika" can also be written 賛美歌. The three characters mean, literalistically, "Praise Beauty Song"; the middle character can be omitted without changing the basic sense of the compound, thus 讃歌 / 賛歌 . Another Japanese term for "hymn" is 聖歌 (Seika, literally "sacred song"); this, too, is a common hymnal title element.

Japanese Hymnals named 讃美歌

• 讃美歌, 1954
• 讃美歌第二編, 1967
• 讃美歌21, 1997