讃美歌 / 賛美歌
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讃美歌 or 賛美歌 (romanized as Sanbika or Sambika) is one of the commonest Japanese expressions meaning "hymn"; since Japanese nouns are the same in the singular and plural, Sanbika also means "hymns", and thus by extension "hymnal"; many Japanese hymnals have had precisely this title, and others incorporate it. 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.
