Translation of medical texts from Dutch to Japanese: The first steps
Abstract
As is well known, the Dutch were the only Westerners who were permitted to trade with Japan between 1639 and 1854. However, the Dutch imported not only goods, but also books, including many that dealt with scientific subjects. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, about a thousand books dealing with different scientific subjects were translated from Dutch to Japanese. This article goes back to the first episodes in this story and uses primary sources to try and answer a number of research questions: what were the source and target language of the first translations and how did the translators go about their work? Furthermore, the article places this story within a wider research context in order to assess whether the examples presented change our idea of what translation is and how this story relates to the work on polysystems by Itamar Even-Zohar. To sum up, this article offers an interesting case study in the first phase of translating between two languages that previously not had any contact.
References
Beukers, Harm. 2001. ‘Dodonaeus in Japan: Deshima Surgeons as Mediators in the Early Introduction of Western Natural History.’ In Willy vande Walle (ed.). Dodonaeus in Japan: Translation and the Scientific Mind in the Tokugawa Period, 281–298. Leuven: Leuven University Press.
Boxer, Charles. 1950. Jan Compagnie in Japan, 1600–1850. Den Haag: Martinus Nijhoff.
Boxer, Charles. 1951. The Christian Century in Japan 1549–1650. London, University of California Press.
Burke, Peter. 2007. ‘Cultures of Translation in Early Modern Europe.’ In Peter Burke & R. Po-Chia Hsia (eds.). Cultural Translation in Early Modern Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Clements, Rebekah. 2015. A Cultural History of Translation in Early Modern Japan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Even-Zohar, Itamar. 1990. ‘The Position of Translated Literature within the Literary Polysystem.’ Poetics Today 11, 1: 45–51.
Goodman, Grant. 1986. Japan: The Dutch Experience. London: The Athlone Press.
Groot, Henk de. 2005. The Study of the Dutch Language in Japan During its Period of National Isolation (ca. 1641–1868). PhD. Thesis: Christchurch, Nieuw Zeeland.
Matsuda, Kiyoshi. 2001. ‘The Reception and Spread of Rembert Dodoens’ Cruydt-boeck in Japan,’ In Willy vande Walle (ed.). Dodonaeus in Japan: Translation and the Scientific Mind in the Tokugawa Period, 191–218. Leuven: Leuven University Press.
Mestler, Gordon. 1956. ‘A Galaxy of Old Japanese Medical Books with Miscellaneous Notes on Early Medicine in Japan. Part III. Urology, Syphilology and Dermatology, Surgery and Pathology,’ Bulletin of the Medical Library Association 44 (2):125–159.
Michel, Wolfgang. 1996. ‘Hans Jurian Hancke — ein Breslauer in Japan.’ 独仏文学 Dokufutsu Bungaku 46: 59–88.
Michel, Wolfgang. 1999. Von Leipzig nach Japan: Der Chirurg und Handelsmann Caspar Schamberger (1623–1706). München: Iudicium.
Michel, Wolfgang. 2010. ‘On Early Red-head-style External Medicine and the Confucian Physician Mukai Genshō.’ Journal of the Japan Society of Medical History, 56 (3): 367–385.
Michel, Wolfgang. 2017. Traditionelle Medizin in Japan — Von der Frühzeit bis zur Gegenwart. München: Kiener Verlag.
Michel, Wolfgang & Yoshikazu Sugitatsu. 2003. ‘Ôtaguro Gentan no Oranda-geka menkyojô to sono haikei nitsuite [De chirurgische licentie van Ôtaguro Gentan en zijn achtergrond].’ Journal of the Japan Society of Medical History 49 (3): 455–477.
Miyasita, Saburō. 1975. ‘A bibliography of the Dutch medical books translated into Japanese.’ Archives Internationales d’Histoire des Sciences 25 (96): 8–72.
Morris-Suzuki, Tessa. 1994. The Technological Transformation of Japan: From the Seventeenth to the Twenty-first Century. Cambridge: CUP.
Vande Walle, Willy. 2001. ‘Linguistics and Translation in Pre-Modern Japan and China: A Comparison.’ In Willy vande Walle (ed.). Dodonaeus in Japan: Translation and the Scientific Mind in the Tokugawa Period, 123–148. Leuven: Leuven University Press.
Vermeulen, T. et al. 1986 e.v. The Deshima Dagregisters. 13 banden. Leiden: Leiden Centre for the History of European Expansion.
Copyright (c) 2018 Roczniki Humanistyczne
![Creative Commons License](http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-nd/4.0/88x31.png)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.