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- Convenor:
-
Ruselle Meade
(Cardiff University)
Send message to Convenor
- Discussant:
-
Richard Bowring
(University of Cambridge)
- Stream:
- History
- Location:
- Bloco 1, Piso 0, Sala 0.06
- Sessions:
- Friday 1 September, -
Time zone: Europe/Lisbon
Short Abstract:
This panel examines the shifting profile of the Meiji translator, charting the emergence of their increasingly distinct professional identity. It asks who engaged in translation, what their motives were, and explores their effects of their practice on Japan's literary landscape.
Long Abstract:
The important role of translation in shaping Meiji state and society is widely acknowledged. However, the nature of translation itself was in constant flux during the period, in terms of the types of texts that were translated, the profiles of their translators, and even the activities that constituted translation. Through three papers examining translators during the era, this panel examines the diverse and shifting profile of the Meiji translator, and charts a transformation from early-Meiji dilettantism to late-Meiji translator celebrity.
Ruselle Meade's paper examines the intralingual translation practice of a popular science book writer who transformed scholarly Japanese translations into the vernacular - in effect 'translating' them - for an audience of tradesmen. Through an examination of the strategies adopted, this paper demonstrates how intralingual translation shaped the Meiji public's engagement with and interpretation of science.
Motoko Akashi focuses on the phenomenon of the 'celebrity translator', a figure that emerged in the late 19th century. Through a dramatis personae of four prominent celebrity translators, she draws a profile of the celebrity translator, and asks what factors beyond the texts they translated helped to generate their fame.
James Hadley concludes the session with an exploration of the literary translation boom at the beginning of the twentieth century, which saw the publication of almost half of all the Meiji period's literary translations. Using a statistical approach, his paper investigates the characteristics of the boom, asking to what it owes its origins, and draws a profile of the translators who lay at its core.
In its exploration of the shifting profile of Meiji translators and their activities, this panel will stimulate discussion on how we can understand the intersection of translation with translator identity. Through its investigations, the panel will chart the emergence of an increasingly distinct identity of the professional Japanese translator, prompting questions about who these translators were, why they engaged in translation, what messages they sought to promote, and what their ultimate effects were on the literary landscape of Japan during the Meiji period and beyond.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Friday 1 September, 2017, -Ruselle Meade (Cardiff University)
Paper short abstract:
This paper explores how a scholarly Chinese work on science was reworked through adaption, synthesis and vernacularization for a readership of early Meiji tradesmen. It examines the various intralingual translation strategies adopted by the work's creator to hone his message for his new audience.
Paper long abstract:
Following the opening of treaty ports in 1859, among the first imports to Japan were science books written in, or translated into, Chinese by British and American protestant missionaries. These works eventually moved beyond a Chinese-literate scholarly circle to a wider public realm, especially with their adoption as textbooks in the new Meiji school system. As they proliferated, they were appropriated by a new generation of readers who sometimes reworked them for new audiences. This paper scrutinizes one such work, Hatsumei Kiji (Accounts of Invention), which was compiled by an Osaka-based merchant who adapted, supplemented and vernacularized scholarly translations to produce a work targeted at those working in the manual trades. The work's creator aimed to persuade his readers that they could be Japan's own James Watts and George Stephensons, and encouraged them to turn their attention to steam-based technologies to secure a prosperous future for themselves in the unsettled social and economic landscape of the early Meiji period. This paper explores how Hatsumei Kiji's creator transformed his sources to make them suitable for his new audience and, in doing so, pays special attention to the adaptation of illustrations and technical terminology. It argues that investigating such examples of intralingual translation, whereby translations are reworked in their new context, are a necessary part of understanding the translation of scientific knowledge in early Meiji society. It also demonstrates how, in an era of heady excitement at elite levels about the potential of science and technology to transform Japan into a prosperous nation-state, science was not seen by all as being narrowly related to nation-building, but was perceived instead as a means of improving one's own personal circumstances and a way to secure a stable future for one's own family.
Motoko Akashi (Trinity College Dublin)
Paper short abstract:
This paper explores celebrity translators in the Meiji period, aiming to define the factors that earned them fame. The paper identifies: who these translators were; how the translators and their works were promoted; their popularity, translation practices; and their activities beyond translation.
Paper long abstract:
This paper aims to define translator celebrity in the Meiji period, asking what factors earned prominent Meiji translators fame. The paper explores the fame of prominent translators Morita Shiken, hailed as the "King of Translation", Kuroiwa Ruikō, known as a pioneer of detective novels, Wakamatsu Shizuko, who established children's literature in Japan, and Mori Ōgai who introduced European philosophy, as well as brought innovation to contemporary Japanese theatre. The paper will identify the factors that created these translators' fame from several aspects, including the works of translation they produced, their activities beyond translation, publicity, and their use of printed media.
Existing research on Meiji translators focuses heavily on the works they produced and the prestige they attained for their contributions to cultural modernisation, especially between the early 1890s and early 1900s, when the number of volumes of translated European and American literature increased significantly. Literary translators who were also leading writers, poets, playwrights, scholars, journalists, editors or literary critics earned fame for the translations they produced. Although the roles of these translators were historically important in the cultural modernisation of Japan, as the existing research suggests, there are other aspects that created their fame. For example, the translators and their works were publicised, and the print media carried not only their works, but also narrative and gossip surrounding these famous translators' private lives.
This paper argues that factors such as publicity, the mass media, and readership, a previously underexplored area in the context of fame, are all important in discussions of Meiji translators' status. It will identify; how their works were promoted; what their activities beyond translation practices were; and how their readers received their work. The aim is to demonstrate the factors that created the Meiji translators' fame beyond simply translating.
James Hadley (Trinity College Dublin)
Paper short abstract:
This paper explores the boom in literary translation that occurred in the early years of the twentieth century. It compares statistics-based data on translation publications throughout the Meiji period with historical data pertaining to world events to ask about the nature and causes of the boom.
Paper long abstract:
Japan's modern history of literary translation is generally held to have begun in the Meiji period, when the near isolationism of the previous two centuries gave way to an enthusiastic importation of ideas from the expansionist powers of Europe and North America. Moreover, it is commonly known that, while technical, diplomatic, and philosophical translation was undertaken from before the beginning of the Meiji period, literary translation was not undertaken widely until the latter two decades of the nineteenth century. When it did begin, however, the translation of literary works originally written in European languages fostered substantial change in native Japanese literary norms, and continues to play an important role in the Japanese literary system as a whole.
Though literary translation in Japan began in the mid-1870s, it was not until the first decade of the twentieth century that Meiji period literary translation activity peaked. This four year peak period saw the publication of almost half of all the literary translations produced throughout the Meiji period. The methodology employed is a statistical one, which investigates the state of the literary translation from European languages in Japan during this period, asking how large the community of literary translators was, how productive the average translator was, and by inference, whether translation was the main occupation for a majority of the translators. The aim of this paper is to ask what brought about the boom, what characterised it, and who the translators most directly involved were.