Abstract
Rai San'yō's Nihon gaishi, sometimes credited as a possible source of inspiration for the Meiji Restoration, is a grand, sweeping history of the rise of Japan's warrior class from the twelfth to the seventeenth centuries. Gaishi was a massive best seller in nineteenth-century Japan, had become a national classic by the century's end, and continued to be popular well into the century that followed. Focusing on the period 1870-1915, this article explores several previously unstudied translations of Gaishi into English, French, and Russian; its promotion in the United States; and its printing and circulation in China. As the article shows, Gaishi was translated earlier and more broadly than other Japanese texts, including the celebrated Tale of Genji; moreover, its various translations and their reception also reveal a globe-spanning debate over differing concepts of literary value and whether effective literary translation was actually possible between “Asia” and the "West".
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 69-115 |
Number of pages | 47 |
Journal | Monumenta Nipponica |
Volume | 76 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2021 |
Keywords
- B. H. Chamberlain
- Ernest Satow
- François Turrettini
- Gu Hongming
- Kanbun
- Nihon gaishi
- Ogura emon (Umayahara Jirō)
- Qian Yi
- Rai San'yō
- Tan Xian
- V. M. Mendrin
- W. E. Griffis
- W. G. Aston
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Cultural Studies
- History
- Anthropology