Evaluating historical views on translation: a case study of Motoki Ryōei, early Japanese theorist

Article Sidebar

PDF
DOI: https://doi.org/10.6035/MonTI.2013.5.6
Keywords:
Evaluating historical writings, Japanese translation history, Ryōei, Motoki

Main Article Content

Judy Wakabayashi

Abstract

The first part of this paper revisits the rationale for examining historical views on translation and offers examples of questions that can help researchers—particularly those new to the study of translation history—contextualize and evaluate historical writings on translation. The second part applies some of these questions to a study of the relatively unknown writings of Motoki Ryōei, an eighteenth-century Japanese translator of European scientific works, in an indirect attempt to demonstrate how such questions, although best combined with a more holistic framework, can help researchers delve beyond the obvious historical facts

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Article Details

How to Cite
Wakabayashi, J. (2014). Evaluating historical views on translation: a case study of Motoki Ryōei, early Japanese theorist. MonTI. Monographs in Translation and Interpreting, (5), 165–191. https://doi.org/10.6035/MonTI.2013.5.6
Issue
No. 5 (2013): The History of Translation within Translation Studies: Problems in Research and Didactics
Section
Articles

The documents contained in these directories are included by the contributing authors as a means to ensure timely dissemination of scholarly and technical work on a non-commercial basis. It is understood that all persons copying this information will adhere to the terms and constraints invoked by each author's copyright. These works may not be reposted without the explicit permission of the copyright holder.

References

Chan, Elsie. (2002) “Translation Principles and the Translator’s Agenda: A Systemic Approach to Yan Fu.” In: Hermans, Theo (ed.) Research Models in Translation Studies II: Historical and Ideological Issues. Manchester, UK & Northampton MA: St. Jerome Publishing, pp. 61–75.

Cheung, Martha. (2006) An Anthology of Chinese Discourse on Translation: Volume 1: From Earliest Times to the Buddhist Project. Manchester, UK & Kinderhook, USA: St. Jerome Publishing.

De Groot, Henk W. K. (2005) The Study of the Dutch Language in Japan During Its Period of National Isolation (ca. 1641-1868). PhD diss., University of Canterbury.

Dryden, John. (1680) From Preface to Ovid’s Epistles. London: J. Tonson.

Horiuchi, Annick. (2003) “When Science Develops outside State Patronage: Dutch Studies in Japan at the Turn of the Nineteenth Century.” Early Science and Medicine 8: 2, pp. 148–172.

Koerner, Konrad. (1989) Practicing Linguistic Historiography. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Lambert, José. (1993) “History, Historiography and the Discipline: A Programme.” In: Gambier, Yves & Jorma Tommola (eds.) Translation and Knowledge. Turku: Centre for Translation and Interpreting, pp. 3–25.

Lefevere, André. (1992) Translation/History/Culture: A Sourcebook. London & New York: Routledge.

Lukacs, Gabor. (2008) Kaitai shinsho and Geka Sōden. Utrecht: Hes & De Graaf.

Marra, Michael F. (2011) Japan’s Frames of Meaning: A Hermeneutics Reader. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.

Montgomery, Scott L. (2000) Science in Translation. Chicago & London: The University of Chicago Press.

Nakayama, Shigeru. (1972) “Diffusion of Copernicanism in Japan.” In: Dorbrzycki, Jerzy (ed.) The reception of Copernicus’ heliocentric theory: proceedings of a symposium. Dordrech & Boston: D. Reidel Publishing Co., pp. 153–188.

Pym, Anthony. (1998) Method in Translation History. Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing.

Rener, Frederick M. (1989) Interpretatio: Language and Translation from Cicero to Tytler. Amsterdam & Atlanta, GA.: Rodopi.

Robinson, Douglas. (1997) Western Translation Theory: From Herodotus to Nietzsche. Manchester, UK: St. Jerome Publishing.

Saigusa, Hiroto. (1936) “Seijutsu hongen taiyō kyūri ryōkai shinsei tenchi nikyū yōhō ki kaisetsu” (Commentary on Seijutsu hongen taiyō kyūri ryōkai shinsei tenchi nikyū yōhō ki). In: Saigusa Hiroto (ed.) Nihon tetsugaku zensho dai 8 kan (A complete collection of Japanese philosophy, vol. 8) Dai 2 bu: Shizen tetsugaku: Tenmon butsuri gakka no shizenkan. Tokyo: Daiichi shobō, pp. 207–11.

Schulte, Rainer & John Biguenet (eds.) (1992) Theories of Translation: An Anthology of Essays from Dryden to Derrida. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Snyder, Lee Daniel. (1999) Macro History: A Theoretical Approach to Comparative World History. Lewiston, Queenston, Lampeter: The Edwin Mellen Press.

Sugimoto, Tsutomu. (1967) Kindai Nihongo no shin kenkyū : sono kōzō to keiseii (New research on modern Japanese: its structure and formation). Tokyo: ƿfnjsha.

Sugimoto, Tsutomu. (1983) Nihon hon'yakugo-shi no kenkyū (A historical study of the words used in translation in Japan). Tokyo: Yasaka Shobǀ.

Sugimoto, Tsutomu. (1991) Kokugogaku to rangogaku (Japanese linguistics and Dutch linguistics). Tokyo: Musashino Shoin.

Sugimoto, Masayoshi & David L. Swain. (1989) Science and Culture in Traditional Japan. Rutland, Vermont & Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle Co., Inc.

Tytler, Alexander Fraser. (1791/2006) Essay on the Principles of Translation. In: Weissbort, Daniel & Astradur Eysteinsson (eds.) Translation: Theory and Practice: A Historical Reader. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 189–94.

Vande Walle, W. F. (2001) “Linguistics and Translation in Pre-modern Japan and China: A Comparison.” In: Vande Walle, W. F. & Kazuhiko Kasaya (eds.) Dodonæus in Japan: Translation and the Scientific Mind in the Tokugawa Period. Kyoto: Leuven University Press; International Research Center for Japanese Studies, pp. 123–147.

Wakabayashi, Judy. (1998) “Marginal Forms of Translation in Japan—Variations from the Norm.” In: Bowker, L.; M. Cronin; D. Kenny & J. Pearson (eds.). Unity in Diversity? Current Trends in Translation Studies. Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing, pp. 57–63.

Wakabayashi, Judy. (2005) “The Reconceptualization of Translation from Chinese in 18th Century Japan”. In: Hung, Eva (ed.) Translation and Cultural Change: Studies in History, Norms and Image-projection. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company, pp. 119–45.

Weissbort, Daniel & Astradur EYSTEINSSON (eds.) (2006) Translation—Theory and Practice: A Historical Reader. Oxford: Oxford University Press.