Presentation

In his groundbreaking book Poétique du traduire (Verdier, 1999), Henri Meschonnic paints a masterly portrait of a Europe born out of, and within, translation (specifically of the Bible). At the same time, he cannot help but observe that a knowledge of how non-Western traditions translate and relate to their fundamental texts is also necessary to the understanding of the world. Meschonnic mentions Japan in this context, which he views as a country of continuity, while acknowledging that more study is necessary in order to define the Japanese translation tradition. Indeed, with the beginning of the so-called “post-colonial” period in the second half of the 20^th century, the discourse of Translation Studies in the West turns to a space beyond Western boundaries, allowing for the emergence of the “Other.” However, despite a general interest in otherness, some languages-cultures remain relatively unknown and unstudied. These gaps in the discipline tend to reinforce the stereotypes that exist within these “incommensurable spaces.” Therefore, ten years after Mechonnic made this observation, we believe that there is still much to be done to demystify Japan and its translation practices and thought. We must acknowledge that despite the curiosity the country and its traditional and popular culture inspire, Translation Studies scholars have not yet methodically examined the question of “Translation in Japan.” And yet, translation, as praxis, played a fundamental role in the construction of the “Self” and “Other” that Japan presents today. It was through translation, over the centuries, that Japan developed its writing system, imported scientific knowledge, constructed its political system and defined its “national character.” Thus, the main aim of this issue is to explore the space of Japanese language-culture through the eyes of Translation Studies researchers who specialize in this area of study. Without aspirations of exhaustivity (an unattainable goal), we would like to present seven case studies focusing on different topics and covering key moments in Japanese cultural and political history, from the Yamato period to the 21^st century. We chose to follow a diachronic approach in presenting the papers; hence the chronological order pertaining to content was selected. We begin with an essay by Yanabu Akira, who proposes the concept of a “cassette effect” to explain the way Chinese characters (called kanji) are introduced and used in Japan. This concept refers to the fascination held by an unknown object whose meaning remains hidden for its first users. However, as time passes, kanji are transformed by the host culture, with the aim of making them distinct from the original Chinese characters. Thus, Japanese meaning and pronunciation are infused into the kanji, and a two-kanji coinage system is developed, among others, to create a writing system that mixes kanji and Yamatokotoba (traditional Japanese language). The two-kanji coinage system is particularly interesting. As Yanabu explains, sometimes, in two-kanji words, form is more important than meaning. Even if three or more kanji are needed to express a borrowed word through translation, the number of kanji that are used drops to two, due precisely to the dominance of the two-kanji coinage system. Thus, it is through memorization more than through analysis that new words are retained and used by the Japanese. And since, for historical reasons, kanji are treated with reverence in Japan, two-kanji words, no matter how obscure they might seem at first, are viewed as important and serious, both in their written form and aurally. Like their predecessors in the Yamato era who brought kanji to Japan, Meiji period scholars used kanji to make up words expressing native as well as foreign material objects and …