It is well known that Soseki Natsume admired George Meredith's novels. So much had he enjoyed Meredith's The Shaving of Shagpat (1855) that he quoted part of the poem from that work in his own novel called Kusamakura (1906). But it is little known that there is a translation of The Shaving of Shagpat and the translator is one of Soseki's students, Masaki Minakawa. Masaki Minakawa is known among the Soseki scholars as the editor of The General Conception of Literature (1924). I have tried to trace his life until he published the translation of The Shaving of Shagpat. As a result, I have found several interesting facts about his life.
1) Minakawa was one of the first students when Soseki was employed as a lecturer at Tokyo Imperial University.
2) After leaving the university, Minakawa taught at Meiji Gakuin High School. While teaching there, he read Soseki's novels, wrote his comments to Soseki, and encouraged him to go on writing.
3) While he was teaching at the Seventh Higher School of Kagoshima, he translated The Shaving of Shagpat. What inspired him to translate it was a lecture given by Lafcadio Hearn, Soseki's immediate predecessor, at Tokyo Imperial University.
4) Minakawa asked Soseki to publish the translation but Soseki died before he could find a publisher for him.
5) After Soseki's death, Toyoichiro Nogami, Soseki's another student helped Minakawa to publish the work as one of the Collected Works of World Literature called “Sekai Meisaku Taikan”.

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The Japanese version of S. Smiles, Self-Help translated by Masanao Nakamura was the best seller in Meiji Period and made contribution to madernization of Japan. This important book was presented by a gentleman called H. W. Freeland as a small token of his best wishes for Nakamura's return journey from England. Although H. W. Freeland was one of the few Nakamura's English friends during his stay in London, there is little known about Freeland.
This article is to clarify who was H. W. Freeland and his publications. The information used here was collected mainly at the British Library during recent visits to England. What I found is as follows.
Humphrey William Freeland (1814-1892)
Eldest son of James Bennet Freeland, Esq., of Chichester, by Ann, daughter of William Humphrey, Esq., late of Chichester. Born in 1814. Educated at Midhurst Grammar School and at Christ Church, Oxford University, where he was 2nd class honors Literae Humaniores 1835, and graduated M. A. 1841. Called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn, 1841, but did not practice. A Magistrate and Deputy-Lieutenant for the County of Sussex.
Author of a volume of Lectures, life and Writings of Lamartine, etc., a volume of Poems with translation from Lamartine, Art : A Version in Chinese, by the MARQUIS TSENG, of a Poem written in English and Italian, and various political pamphlets. Member of the Royal Aiastic Society of Great Britain and Ireland from 1862, Fellow of Royal Botanical, Geological, & Statistical Societies, a Life Governor of the Agricultural Scoiety, Titular Life Member of 'Institut d'Afrique', Member of Athenaeum Club, etc.
Liberal MP for Chichester 1859-63, and in favour of extention of the parliamentary franchise. No record of marriage. Died Chichester 2 Oct. 1892.

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Lafcadio Hearn translated a number of 19th century French literary works into English while he was a journalist in New Orleans in North America. His translations include the works of Guy de Maupassant, Emile Zola, Theophile Gautier and Anatole France among others. He is said to have translated over three hundred works. A large number indeed, and we can begin to understand how enthusiastically he put his energies into translations of French literature while at the same time still working as a journalist. In a sense, Hearn was the pioneer introducer of contemporary French literature, as it was he that first translated and introduced the works of Théophile Gautier, Piere Roti and Anatole France to the American literary scene. Yet when we read today of American literary history, we will rarely come across the name of Lafcadio Hearn as an author, or as having played any important role in the translation and introducing of.19th century French literature. The achievement of Hearn's work in this field should be studied further and properly evaluated within the scope of American literary history. In this paper, I have focussed on this aspect of Hearn's theory and practice of translation of French literature.
Hearn wrote several articles on translation, and one of them, “For the Sum of 25” which appeared in “Times-Democrat” (1882/9/24), helps us most in understanding his ideas on translation. He know how difficult it was to translate a literary work from one language to another, however, he went about it anyway relying on his own sense of words and style and taste for literature. The article, “For the Sum of 25” shows us in detail how literary translation should be carried out according to him, and points out the short-comings of the then current translations of French literature by offering practical examples by other translators.
In order to understand his thoughts and test his methods, I arbitrarily picked up his translation of Guy de Maupassant's work “La Mere Sauvage” and made a study of it from the viewpoint of translation technique and language sense as well as comparing it with the original French text. I also used the contemporary translation (Penguin Books version) done by Roger Colet to compare with that of Lafcadio Hearn. Through this verification process, I could begin to discover his practical techniques of translation and I presume that these techniques might have something to do with his method of creative adaptation of diverse local stories from particular parts of the world including Japan, China, India, Egypt and so on.
For Hearn, the translation of French literature was not just a whimsical pastime or a diversion from his work as a journalist. It was more than a sort of self-disciplined training to improve his own writing and in so doing, create a more sophisticated writing style.

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Tsubouchi Shoyo owes his success in his twenties to Sanae Takada a great deal. Takada was a friend of Shoyo's university student days. He graduated from Tokyo Imperial University one year earlier than Shoyo and became a lecturer at Tokyo College. Shoyo was given a lectureship at Tokyo College in 1883 on Takada's recommendation to Azusa Ono, councilor of the board of Tokyo College, soon after he graduated from the university. Ono had already set up his company named the Toyokan Shoten publishing instructive books. It was Takada who told Ono that Shoyo had been translating Shakespeare's Julius Caesar into Japanese, weaving the play into the form of 'joruri, ' ever since Shoyo's student days and advised him to publish it from his Toyokan Shoten. Shoyo's 'joruri' version of Julius Caesar was published under the title Jiyu no Tachi Nagori no Kire-Aji, in Japanese, or The Good Quality of A Liberty Sword, in English, in 1884 from the Toyokan Shoten. Its publishing advertisement in The Yomiuri newspaper of June 5th, 1884, attracted a lot of public attention to it. Julius Caesar was adapted into Japanese play written in a 'joruri'-styled prose according to the structural pattern of Jidaimono joruri' or historical 'joruri' dealing with heroes and heroines of history.
We can find, it seems to me, the standard pattern of the five dramatic principles : 'jo' or 'introduction' inAct I, 'ha-no-jo' or 'introduction to development' in Act II, 'ha-noha' or 'develoment in development' in Act III, 'ha-no-kyu' or 'climax in development' in Act IV and lyu' or 'climax' in Act V; and the seven passages or scenes peculiar to 'ji-daimono joruri' in Shoyo's version.

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This paper of Griffis was issued on the North American Review in 1875. It was the first of his views on Japanese history after his return to America. He reprinted it in the 1st part of his brilliant book named The Mikado's Empire in 1876, revising some parts of the paper.
Muta Yutaka from Karatu han in Saga was lucky to find and tried to translate it. He learned English from Verbeck in Nagasaki and as an interpreter of the governer of his prefecture went over to America. At first he issued the first half part of the translation in 1875 in a book called “Ishin-Gai-Ron” but gave up the issue of the second half part. Seven years later he com-pleted the publication of the same translation.
In the original work Griffis insisted that the modernization of Japan in Meiji period was carried out greatly by the force within, not only by an impact from the foreigners. And Japan's progressive success would be made by rooting the rights of the individual and Christianity among the Japanese. Perhaps this was a valuable article which was unprecedented. But it was not noticed by a number of Japanese intellectuals, because they were most enthusiastic for taking in European ideas.
Muta appreciated the paper so well that his translation helped to have the opinion of Griffis on Japan undersood by the Japanese readers. His merit cannot be overestimated.

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This article is a case study on the relation between the popular rights movement and English studies. It deals with Risshigakusha in Tosa and Seidokan in Miharu. Risshigakusha was established in 1874 to teach English and English political science to inspire the popular rights movement. Its text books included the books by Bentham, Mill, Guizot and Buckle. I pointed out its historical importance by scrutinizing its textbooks and the method of teaching. Then I turned to Seidokan as an another example. Seidokan was established by Miharu town in Fukushima Prefecture. It lasted only one year, but it had several important characteristics. Though it did not teach English, two teachers from Tosa tought political theory by the Japanese translations of English political texts. These schools in the early Meiji era must be studied as a remarkable aspect of the impact of English studies on Meiji Japan.

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[in Japanese]

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Steamship lines between San Francisco and Yokohama were opened in 1867 by the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, the Colorado being the first steamer that arrived in Yokohama.
The steamers on this line were the Colorado, the Great Republic, the America, the Japan, and the China. They were wooden paddle steamers, among which the America was destroyed by the fire on Aug. 24, 1872 at Yokohama.
Later, the City of Tokio and the City of Peking, iron ships with propellers, were added to the line up.
A large number of passengers Japanese as well as foreign crossed the Pacific. Those who went over to America and Europe using this line for the purpose of studying abroad contributed to the civilization of a new Japan.
We can find the list of passengers in the columns of English newspapers But their names are often misspelt by the editors of the paper. So it is sometimes puzzling who the names refer to.

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On April 8 of the third year of Bunkyu (1863), a U. S. merchant vessel named the Viking drifted ashore at Mikurajima and was wrecked. There were 483 passengers including 460 Chinese. They were more than two times as many as the islanders. It was the first experience for them to see such a huge black ship and foreigners. The islanders didn't know how to treat them. Ichiro Kurimoto, Village Secretary (then 31 years old) became a leader and took charge of the 23 members of the American crew. Kurimoto was brave and generous. While Americans stayed there for 50 days, he wrote a diary about this event. It is called An Account or the Black Ship which Drifted Ashore.
He also left a notebook which contained scores of English words : names of food, weather conditions, sea terms, and all things with their meanings and pronunciation written in “katakana”. Kurimoto picked them up by his own ears while communicating with the foreigners.
This article spotlights his diary, especially on himself, his distinguished efforts and what he did 130 years ago.

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