Abstract
It is said that the translated books of household management in the early years of the Meiji Era had much influence on home economics in Japan. But it is not known about their original texts.
The purpose of this paper is to clarify the original of Nagata Kensuke tr., “Hyakkazensho Kajiken'yakukun, ” which is said to be the first translated one, and the author.
The results are as follows : (1) The original of “Kajiken'yakukun” is “Household Hints, ” the last part of “Chambers's Information for the People, ” first edition which was published in Edinburgh, in 1833, by W. & R. Chambers, Ltd. But, “Household Hints” did not appear in the first edition. It seems to have been written by the year 1856, according to the British Library General Catalogue. (2) The authors, William Chambers (1800-1883) and Robert Chambers (1802-1871) were Edinburgh publishers. (3) By 1873, Hatakeyama Yoshinari, a student sent abroad by the Satsuma-han and Ambassador Iwakura, had carried back “Chambers's Information for the People.”
