Nagasaki Tsūji in historical novels by Yoshimura Akira
An alternative way of studying the history of interpreters
This chapter attempts to illustrate the significance of studying the history of
interpreting through novels, focusing on Yoshimura Akira who portrayed
pre-modern interpreters within socio-political contexts of the time. Four
of Yoshimura’s novels will be analyzed: (1) Fuyu no Taka (1974), describing
the translation of a medical book in Dutch into Japanese; (2) Von Siebold no
Musume (1978), offering an insight into the role of interpreters; (3) Umi no
Sairei (1989) illustrating how Ranald MacDonald taught English in Japan; and
(4) Kurofune (1978), depicting interpreters at the time when American battleships
came. Yoshimura’s works testify the potential of historical novels as an
alternative way of studying past interpreters to help us understand how they
lived and how they worked.
Cited by (1)
Cited by one other publication
Tanaka, Miyuki
2023.
Oranda-tsūji (Japanese‒Dutch Interpreters) in the Eighteenth Century: The Case of Yoshio Kōzaemon. In
Tsūji, Interpreters in and Around Early Modern Japan [
Translation History, ],
► pp. 27 ff.
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