Historical English Studies in Japan
Online ISSN : 1883-9282
Print ISSN : 0386-9490
ISSN-L : 0386-9490
Volume 1989, Issue 21
Displaying 1-13 of 13 articles from this issue
  • Toshio Honda
    1989 Volume 1989 Issue 21 Pages 1-13
    Published: October 01, 1988
    Released on J-STAGE: August 10, 2010
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    In 1866 a young samurai Masanori Iwaizumi, Hachinohe Han government student was sent to Nisshindo, educational institute of mine, applied science and medicine in Morioka, capital of Nambu Han. He wrote a letter to his teacher Takatoh Ohshima who stayed in Miyako district. Ohshima was a well-known refining and cannon-casting engineer employed by the Prince of Nambu, and serving, at the same time, under Tokugawa-Shogunate government for a short period.
    This letter shows that Ohshima and his students devoted themselves to planning to build an ironworks in Miyako and construct a blast furnace in Kosaka silver mine near Lake Towada. We cannot say anything for certain about the course of study or academic subjects-mining and metallurgical engineering in particular-which might have been taught in Nisshindo. I have found, however, that in Kosaka silver mine Ohshima taught the above subjects, such as English, mathematics, surveying, mechanics, mining, metallurgy, civil engineering and so on.
    During the period (1862-1863) Ohshima had a better chance of learning the method of mining, powder blasting, and European languages, such as English and French in particular, working with the Oyatois (two American mining and metallurgical engineers) who, employed by Tokugawa-bakufu, were stationed in Hakodate, Yezo, northern Japan.
    He practically applied what he had learned to the education of his students in Kosaka silver mine. In this article I have described how Takatoh Ohshima taught English which was to be a basic means for his students to study mining and metallurgical engineering at Nisshindo toward the end of Tokugawa period.
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  • on the Members of the Ikeda Family
    Yoshitora Matsuno
    1989 Volume 1989 Issue 21 Pages 15-36
    Published: October 01, 1988
    Released on J-STAGE: August 10, 2010
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    Stigmatized as an Emperor's enemy, Yonezawa produced, after the Restoration War (BOSHIN-SENSO), more men of advanced view than other clans (_??_) in the Tohoku districts.
    I think Yonezawa owes the effect worth notice to repletion of school education in Kojokan (_??__??__??_), the school founded by Uesugi Yozan (_??__??__??__??_) in 1776, and to progressive ideas spread among the doctors here by RANGAKU and EIGAKU (English studies) that had been promoted before and after the Restoration, respectively.
    ‘The Genealogy of Western Learning in Yonezawa’ consisting of five sections is a series of papers on the representative families of Yonezawa that had produced distinguished members since the Meiji Restoration a Section I is on the members around Tsuboi Ishun (_??__??__??__??_), section II on the members of Ito (_??__??_) family, section IV on the members around Kashimura Kiyonori (_??__??__??__??_) and section V on the members of Amakasu (_??__??_) family.
    This paper, section III is on the members of Ikeda (_??__??_) family who were conspicuous among the contemporaries in their ideas and view of life: each of them was a rationalist, a man of spirit and high intelligence. We learn, through their walk of life, how descendants of middle-class samurais of the Yonezawa clan shook off the feudalistic ideas to cut brilliant figures in the modern Japan. It was through Western learning that they could awake to advancement of Western thought and civilization and that they could take the lead of their contemporaries.
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  • Chisato Ishihara
    1989 Volume 1989 Issue 21 Pages 37-60
    Published: October 01, 1988
    Released on J-STAGE: August 10, 2010
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    Tsunenosuke Namura was one of the 14 lucky students of Ranald Mac-Donald, the first American who taught English to the Japanese official Dutch interpreters for about seven months while he was imprisoned at Nagasaki in 1848. Gohatiro Namura was the chief interpreter of the first Japanese embassy to the United States in 1860. He was also one of the interpreters when the treaty of peace and amity was signed between the United States and Japan in 1854 through the efforts of Commodore M. C. Perry. At that time Gohatiro already had a certain knowledge of English, and because of this, Tsunenosuke was sometimes mistaken for Gohatiro or his father Sadagoro.
    This paper presents the results of the author's research of the Namura genealogy. Tsunenosuke and Gohatiro were two different persons, but were descendants of the same ancestor, Hachizaemon Namura, who started to work as Dutch interpreter in 1640.
    The numerous achievements of the members of the Namura family not only in the international relations but also in the teaching and learning of Dutch and English languages during the period of more than 200 years are described.
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  • Kenji Sonoda
    1989 Volume 1989 Issue 21 Pages 61-75
    Published: October 01, 1988
    Released on J-STAGE: August 10, 2010
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    Ranald MacDonald's “Glossary of English and Japanese Words” is included in Ranald MacDonald edited by W. S. Lewis and Murakami. Lewis says that this glossary is based on McLeod's English and Japanese glossary, which McLeod himself arranged from MacDonald's notes. According to Lewis, Japan/Story of Adventure of Ranald MacDonald in RM was printed as it appeared in the duplicate manuscripts of MacDonald. But when one reads these manuscripts, one notices that none of them include an English and Japanese glossary. In fact, McLeod had decided to exclude his English and Japanese glossary from MacDonald's story, but Lewis published it in RM, ignoring McLeod's decision.
    At present, there are four kinds of English and Japanese glossaries: MacDonald's original notes, McLeod's two glossaries and the glossary in RM. McLeod made many errors when he transcribed MacDonald's Japanese from the original notes and when he transcribed the Japanese words from his draft of English and Japanese glossary. Lewis also made many mistakes when he published in RM the Japanese words that are based on McLeod's manuscript. As a result, about one-fourth of the Japanese in the glossary in RM are different from those written in MacDonald's notes. The Japanese words in the glossary in RM are not so helpful in understanding MacDonald's Japanese. Thus, it would be necessary to transcribe again the Japanese words from MacDonald's original notes.
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  • Satoru Mori
    1989 Volume 1989 Issue 21 Pages 77-90
    Published: October 01, 1988
    Released on J-STAGE: August 10, 2010
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    After the middle of the 19th century, Commodore Perry forced Japan to open this country for intercourse. At that time, we had no interpreters of English, and Oranda Tsuuji (interpreters of Dutch) played an important role. Studies of the Tsuujis have been carried on rather brilliantly, but we do not have much documents about Moriyama Einosuke (_??__??__??__??__??_).
    In this paper, I would like to throw a light on his life, referring to the following points:
    1. Dutch Learning
    2. English Learning
    3. Aspects as an Interpreter
    4. English Ability
    5. Dutch Ability
    6. Lineage
    7. Promotion
    8. Character
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  • Kenshi Numakura, Mitsuho Numakura
    1989 Volume 1989 Issue 21 Pages 91-111
    Published: October 01, 1988
    Released on J-STAGE: August 10, 2010
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    Taizo Masaki is most prominently mentioned in “Yoshida Torajiro”, a short story by Robert Louis Stevenson. After the Meiji Restoration, he was dispatched to Great Britain twice from 1871 to 1881, and became the first president of Tokyo Shokko Gakko (now Tokyo Institute of Technology). He worked earnestly for industrial education for nearly twenty years in the early years of Meiji Era. In 1890, Masaki was transferred to the Foreign Office, and went to Honolulu as consul in Hawaii. After one year, he was promoted to consul general. He stayed in Honolulu for 2 years and a half, however, his activities in Hawaii were not made clear yet. In this article, various kinds of documents between Japanese Foreign Office and Consul Masaki were studied, and the present writers tried to learn from them how he acted as Hawaiian consul.
    The diplomatic relation between Japan and Hawaii Kingdom began in 1860. It continued only 40 years, because of the Hawaiian revolution in 1893 and the annexation by the U.S.A. The largest pending problem of both countries was the immigration for the sugar beet farms from Japan. As sugar was the main product of Hawaii, the sugar beet farms needed a large number of workers. On the other hand, Japanese agricultural villages were in a long depression after the Meiji Restoration. After short preliminary negotiations, both governments arrived at an agreement that Japan would supply round numbers of immigrants for Hawaiian sugar farms periodically. In 1884, the Japanese consulate was opened at Honolulu, and the first ship “the City of Tokyo” carried 948 emigrants to Hawaii in 1885. This emigration organized by the Japanese government continued for ten years, and 29, 139 Japanese emigrants voyaged to Hawaii as often as 26 times. As the government-sponsored emigration brought about many conflicts, various kinds of troubles occurred.
    Taizo Masaki made a voyage to Honolulu as the fourth consul in May, 1890. It was the peak period of governmental emigration, and more than twelve thousand emigrants voyaged.
    There are many documents, and correspondance archives referring to Hawaii in the Diplomatic Record Office. We can infer the activities of Taizo Masaki in Hawaii as consul. The most important business of the Hawaiian consulate was the remittance of immigrants to their family in Japan. Because there was no branch of a Japanese bank in those early years, it was very difficult. Masaki invited a new branch of Yokohama Shokin Bank to Honolulu for Japanese immigrants. The remittance to Japan became easier.
    Masaki sent many formal annd informal reports which included important information. One of them referred to the suffrage of immigrants. The Hawaiian constitution amended in 1887, approved the right to vote of those other than American or European immigrants. Masaki gave a report on the historical situation and pointed out those problems. The other important reports were referring to the political change of the Hawaiian Government. In those days, the political situation in Hawaii was very unstable; therefore, coups d'état and reorganizations of the cabinet were done frequently. Masaki's reports described the circumstances of the changes of Hawaiian government and his opinions about them. His final report was dated Nov. 9, 1892, because he returned to Japan in December. It was only one month before the Hawaiian Kingdom collapsed and transferred to the republic form of government.
    The analysis in this article is not enough; a more detailed examination will be reported in the following articles. The other documents of Taizo Masaki referring to many other items will be introduced, too.
    In the meantime, Robert Louis Stevenson was making a tour of the islands in the Pacific Ocean, and visited Hawaii at least twice. We have much interest in the question whether the two old friends could meet again or not.
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  • Kenkichi Takanashi
    1989 Volume 1989 Issue 21 Pages 113-127
    Published: October 01, 1988
    Released on J-STAGE: August 10, 2010
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    The legend of Urashima is told in English by several writers. The legend itself has been handed down in several versions. The earliest attempt at introducing this Japanese folk tale to English readers was made by B. H. Chamberlain, when he translated a poem on Urashima from the Manyoshu, the earliest Japanese anthology.
    His translation was not a prose, but a poem after the manner of an English ballad, which is a favorite style with the English people in reciting the medieval legends. English and Japanese are quite different languages with almost antipodal characters. He believed that the Japanese poetry could be better understood by English readers when rendered in English poetic style. His early translations, including “Urashima”, was literary, but later his taste changed. He was no longer satisfied with the liberal translation. He wanted to be strictly faithful to the original text.
    He wrote for English boys and girls four Japanese fairy tales, one of which is “Urashima.” It is adapted from a popular version of the fisher boy Urashima.
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  • Yoshikazu Nakagawa
    1989 Volume 1989 Issue 21 Pages 129-141
    Published: October 01, 1988
    Released on J-STAGE: August 10, 2010
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    In view of his 14 years' career in two prominent universities in the latter half of the Meiji era, we feel we still have many things that can be said about his young days in U.S. and about his academic life in Tokyo. Unlike Murdoch, Dixon and Hearn, Wood (1857-1912) has not quite become our familiar figure yet. This is partly because of the scarcity of his writings and partly because of the limited sources of information. The sources chiefly available have been an official record kept at Tokyo University and the memories, often short, by his students, besides Soseki's translation of Wood's “Poet Laureate, Tennyson.”
    Here I trace different roads. As for his academic background, we may find hints in the records of Johns Hopkins University where as a student he nurtured a deep interest in German philology, and especially in the inter-relations of English and German novels of the 18th century. Then I look at his writings more closely.
    1) Einfluss Fieldings auf die Deutsche Literatur. (Yokohama, 1895)
    This newly found booklet, seemingly a copy of his dissertation at Heidelberg, may have had some influence upon our men of letters.
    2) Short-Poems by Fifty Modern English Poets (Wood ed. Tokyo, 1906)
    In its numerous notes as well as in his observations in the Preface and other pages, we can hear what he wanted to say.
    With some new data I may introduce, we may safely say that Dr. Wood was a sincere expert as a teacher, though he was a great son of Bacchus.
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  • Yasuhiro Motoi
    1989 Volume 1989 Issue 21 Pages 143-153
    Published: October 01, 1988
    Released on J-STAGE: August 10, 2010
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    Leroy Lancing Janes (1837-1909) is quite well-known as a pioneer American educator in early Meiji Japan. He was the father of the so-called Kumamoto Band whose members played indispensable role in the modern history of Christianity in Japan. It is, however, not true that we can have a good grasp of his whole life in detail. Thanks to newly published American Samurai (Princeton University Press, 1985) by F. G. Notehelfer, Janes has begun to show his real figure, especially in America, to us for the first time. But we cannot but admit that in spite of Notehelfer's magnificent work, what Janes did in Osaka and Kagoshima still remains in an uncertain condition particularly for the lack of the available materials on the Japanese side.
    This paper of mine aims to make his days in Osaka as clearly as possible, making use of the unknown materials preserved at one of the archives of Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan.
    Leaving Kumamoto on Oct. 7, 1876, he entered into a contract with Osaka-Eigo-Gakko on Oct. 20. He taught chemistry and physics there from Nov. 1 to Apr. 10, 1877, when he had to resign owing to his illness and disappointment at the school.
    He came back home with his family in May, 1877, with the hope of visiting Japan again to be a professor of Doshisha, which, however, turned out in vain because of the divorce suit brought by his wife's father, H. M. Scudder. This suit actually brought him a social death.
    While he was in Osaka, he was requested earnestly to join the Japan Mission of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions to work at Doshisha where most of his former students were studying. But he would not respond to its call at that time, missing thus the last chance to work at Doshisha. In this sense his hesitation in Osaka became the Great Divide for his life, dividing it into those two parts, the first half filled with glory and the second with tragedy.
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  • Noriyoshi Kobayashi
    1989 Volume 1989 Issue 21 Pages 155-167
    Published: October 01, 1988
    Released on J-STAGE: August 10, 2010
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    Henry Topping (1857-1947), an American Baptist missionary, came to Japan in 1894. He taught at Tokyo Baptist Academy. Mrs. Topping, nee Genevieve Faville (1863-1953), opened two kindergartens at Tsukiji and Yotsuya in Tokyo. In 1907, Mr. and Mrs. Topping were transferred to Morioka with their daughter Helen and son Willard. Mr. Topping served actively in the Morioka church as pastor, and Mrs. Topping opened a successful kindergarten there.
    In 1919, Mr. and Mrs. Topping left Morioka because of illness. They worked in Yokohama for a while, but his illness made them leave the mission in 1927. They returned home but came to Japan again to help Rev. Toyohiko Kagawa. Mr. Topping died in Tokyo. Mrs. Topping stayed on alone in Japan during World War II. She returned home in 1948, but came to Japan again in 1953 with her daughter Helen. Mrs. Topping also died in Tokyo.
    Helen Faville Topping (1889-1982) served as the first general secretary of the Kobe YWCA, and after meeting Rev. Kagawa in New York in 1925, she helped him before and after the war. She returned to the States in the late 1960's and died there.
    Willard Faville Topping (1899-1959) married Evelyn B. Bickel (1899-1983), a daughter of Captain Bickel of the Fukuin-maru. They returned to the States just before the war, but came to Japan again to teach at Kanto Gakuin in Yokohama. They returned to the States in 1953 and died there.
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  • Tomohiko Endô
    1989 Volume 1989 Issue 21 Pages 169-184
    Published: October 01, 1988
    Released on J-STAGE: August 10, 2010
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    The main theme of this paper is to make clear when and how the names of shichiyo were translated from European languages into Japanese.
    The writer examined representative Dutch-Japanese dictionaries compiled in the Edo era and important English-Japanese or Japanese-English dictionaries published in the late years of Edo era and in the early years of the Meiji era.
    In the oldest, extant English-Japanese dictionary ‘_??__??__??__??__??__??__??__??_’ (1811) by Shôei Motoki, we can find the names of shichiyo in the same forms as in the present use. But about 20 years before, Shôei's father Yoshinaga Motoki made an astroromical translation from Dutch, and in his book (1791-1792), we can find shichiyo such as_??__??__??_, _??__??__??_, _??__??__??_, _??__??__??_, _??__??__??_, _??__??__??_, _??__??__??_.
    It may be said that Yoshinaga Motoki and his son played an important role in the translation of shichiyo.
    In the process of his translation, he seemed to refer to Latin. How was he able to have a knowledge of Latin? In 1595, Christian missionaries made a Latin-Portuguese-Japanese dictionary in Amakusa. He could consult this dictionary.
    After presenting a report at the regular monthly meeting in May, 1988, the writer knew that shichiyo appeared as _??__??_, _??_, _??_, _??_, _??_, _??_, _??_ in ‘Midokampakuki’ by Michinaga Fujiwara (998). Why were they in the same order as in the present use?
    What is the relation between the theory of the five natural elements _??__??__??__??__??_ (i.e. wood, fire, earth, metal and water) and the naming of shichiyo?
    The writer hopes this paper will help scholars make further studies.
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  • Takashi Morikawa
    1989 Volume 1989 Issue 21 Pages 185-204
    Published: October 01, 1988
    Released on J-STAGE: August 10, 2010
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    This spring I was happy to see at the Tohoku University Library the English compositions that Natsume Soseki wrote when he was a student at the First Higher Middle School and to copy three of them in longhand. They are “The Death of My Brother”, “My Friends in the School (continued)” and “Japan and England in the Sixteenth Century”. Reading them I wondered why he had become good at writing English in only a few years. The first cause I find efficient is that Soseki admirably concentrated all his energies upon learning English. The second is that all school subjects were taught in English, which inevitably increased his hours for learning and using English. The third is that his good memory developed while learning Chinese classics was of great use for learning English.
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  • 1989 Volume 1989 Issue 21 Pages 209-222
    Published: October 01, 1988
    Released on J-STAGE: August 10, 2010
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
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