Yen-pon and the Norms of Literary Translation

Abstract

In the early Showa-era, the Japanese publishing market experienced what was then referred to as the ‘yen-pon boom.’ ‘Yen-pon (literally, one-yen book)’ means a series of selected literary works sold at a price of one yen apiece. The price was reasonable so that general readers could readily afford to read canonical works. This new type of publication exerted great influence upon literary circles. This paper will analyse, by examining ‘paratext’ such as statements on translation and on foreign literature in leaflets supplemented to each volume of yen-pons, what policy and norms of translation the publishers formulated in the yen-pon. It will also illustrate that publishers gained more control over the act of translation, aiming at widening the literary market for ordinary readers and at the same time enlightening the readers by means of source-oriented approach toward translation that academics adopted to their research.