著者

川村 ハツエ

出版者

日本英学史学会

雑誌

英学史研究 (ISSN:03869490)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.1994, no.26, pp.1-16, 1993

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It was in 1888 that<I>THE OLD BAMBOO-HEWER'S STORY</I> (Taketorimonogatari) was translated into English for the first time and published in London by F. V. Dickins. Eight years later, in 1906, he revised it completely and included it in his<I>PRIMITIVE & MEDIAEVAL JAPANESE TEXTS</I>. In the preface he wrote, &ldquo;I desire here to acknowledge my great indebtedness to the writings of Dr. Aston, Prof. B. H. Chamberlain, Dr. Karl Florenz and Sir Ernest Satow : to my friend, Mr. Minakata Kumagusu.&rdquo; <BR>Kumagusu stayed in London from 1892 to 1900. During his stay, he met F. V. Dickins, then registrar of University of London. According to Kumagusu's diary, Dickins showed him his translation of<I>TAKETORIMONOGATARI</I>and asked for his opinion. On reading it, Kumagusu criticised it severely from his point of view as a Japanese. The diary says Dickins got very angry, because he was proud of his rendering. However, Dickins accepted Kumagusu's helpful advice. It took him eight years to revise it thoroughly. This shows that Dickins was fascinated by the story of Kaguyahime, simple, graceful and genuinely Japanese.