Dr. Katja Triplett

The project aims at contributing to research of early modern translation cultures in a phase of lively transcultural exchanges between Europe and East Asia, here Japan, from a study of religions perspective. It looks at the dynamics of exchange processes between Catholic missionaries and Buddhists in late medieval and early modern Japan. From the encounter of two radically different translation cultures beginning with the Jesuit Mission in 1549, new approaches of translation and language theory developed in Japan that have so far not been looked at closely. The convention of reading religious texts in Japan exerted a strong influence on the translation of texts from European languages, especially when the Japanese writing system was chosen for presenting the translation. Reviewing a historical case study of a non-European culture based on primary sources such as the Contemptus mundi (1596; 1610) from the Japanese Jesuit press in a comparative study of religions perspective will expand the field of current translation theories. The project takes on two challenges regarding the radical difference of the translation cultures of Japan and Europe: The investigation of (1) social networks of actors and their oral as well as textual transfer of fiercely contested bodies of knowledge and, directly connected to this, (2) the involvement of the languages (Chinese, Japanese, Sinitic) and the complex East Asian writing systems they engaged with during the translation projects. The project primarily explores transcultural translation activity during the phase of cultural contact between Japan and Europe in the networks active in Japan including the activities of cultural brokers. The problem of a differentiation between Christian and “secular” texts from Europe is discussed in the project as an important topic in the study of religions. This differentiation was formulated by the Japanese authorities during the time when the prohibition of Christianity was implemented in order to distinguish between the legal and the illegal. The differentiation between “religious” and “secular” was negotiated among Jesuits and Buddhists as well as government officials. The censorship included not only the textual products of the Jesuit translation teams but also the utilisation of books in European languages imported to Japan. The aspirations to obtain new knowledge were dampened in this period by the strict bureaucratic regulations and the conservative stance of Buddhist clerics. The project is dedicated to the analysis of contemporary debates on the impetus from Europe on Japanese orders of knowledge and the role of the translation mode of kanbun kundoku that had evolved in Japan over many centuries. This unusual translation mode can be described as including the source text itself within the target text. Overall, emic considerations of language and translation theory in early modern East Asian culture provide an important case for comparative research on other non-European regions and early modern Europe.

See also: Japan’s Translated Religion