The Conceptualisation of Hon’an (Adaptation) in Edo and Meiji Japan

Abstract

The term hon’an ( 翻案 ) has been used to refer to a type of rendering of foreign literature and classics that is not a ‘faithful translation’ but a remaking of the ST based on borrowing its outline but changing the details. Translations of Chinese novels in the Edo period and Western literature in the early Meiji period have been described using the term hon’an. However, in those times, the word hon’an was understood differently from how the term is used today. In mid-Meiji, the concept of hon’an was formed under the influence of contemporary changes in translation norms and the theory of the ‘modern novel’. Based on an examination of the discourses on literary renderings in the Meiji period, this paper explores when and how the term hon’an was conceptualised—and, specifically, what it meant.