The Prose of Our Land
Ban Kōkei, Translation, and National Language Consciousness in Eighteenth-Century Japan
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6171141 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Rebekah Clements (0000-0003-2597-0882, Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 23 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 119-136 |
| Publication date | 2023-11-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Sungkyun Journal of East Asian Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2586-0380 • E-ISSN: 1598-2661 |
| Publisher | Duke University Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1215/15982661-10773048 |
| OpenAlex | W4389075195 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 16 |
Today, Ban Kōkei 伴蒿蹊 (1733–1806) is mostly known as the author of a collection of biographies, which became one of the best-selling books of Japan's late eighteenth century. However, he also devoted much of his career to developing the expressive potential of Japanese prose writing. This article locates Kōkei's promotion of language reform within the context of contemporaneous developments in translation from classical into vernacular Japanese and explains the role of translation in Kōkei's attempts to develop Japanese prose writing nearly one hundred years before the better-known national language advocacy of the “Unification of the Spoken and Written Languages” (Genbun itchi 言文一致) movement of the Meiji period (1868–1912). Considered alongside canonical figures like Motoori Norinaga and Ogyū Sorai, Kōkei's lesser-known work is evidence of a nascent “national” language consciousness among Japanese intellectuals prior to the Meiji period
Aesthetics · Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · Consciousness · Context (archaeology · Economic history · Linguistics · Literature · Meiji period · Meiji Restoration · Period (music · Political science · Politics · Promotion (chess · Unification · Vernacular · Computer Science · History · Japanese History and Culture · Law · Philippine History and Culture · Philosophy · Psychology · Translation Studies and Practices
Friends, Acquaintances, Pupils and Patrons
Rhetoric, Hermeneutics, and Translation in the Middle Ages
The Reconceptualization of Translation from Chinese in 18th Century Japan
Voices of the Past
Kokugaku vs. Nativism
Reflections on the Meaning of Our Country
Grappling with Chinese Writing as a Material Language
The Distant Isle
High' Versus `Low'. The Fude no Saga Controversy and Bakumatsu Poetics
Chen Beixi, Lu Xiangshan, and Early Tokugawa (1600-1867) Philosophical Lexicography
The Book in Japan
Tokugawa Texts as a Playground for a Postmodern Romp
Buddhism and the Rise of the Written Vernacular in East Asia
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |