著者

五之治 昌比呂

出版者

京都大学西洋古典研究会

雑誌

西洋古典論集 (ISSN:02897113)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.22, pp.260-278, 2010-03-28

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Engerbert Kämpfer's so-called ‘Sakoku-ron' (On Japan's closed country) is an essay arguing the validity of Japan's closed country in the 17th century. It is included in his Amoenitates Exoticae, written in Latin, which is the only book he published during his lifetime. He was preparing a larger-scale book about Japan in German, Heutiges Japan, which contained a lot of information he had collected during his stay in Japan as a doctor of the Dutch East Indian Company. Unfortunately, he did not see it published during his life and a large collection of his drafts and notes were left to his heirs. After a complicated process, two celebrated books were produced by editing the drafts of Kämpfer's unpublished work on Japan: J. C. Scheuchzer's English translation and C. W. Dohm's German edition. Both authors included translations of Kämpfer's essays on Japan from Amoenitates Exoticae, including Sakoku-ron, as an appendix to their books. After publication, these two books were subsequently so successful and widely read that little attention was paid to the Latin original. Most arguments on these texts, especially Sakoku-ron, have been usually based on the translations (especially Dohm's). The aim of my paper is to compare closely the Latin original and the translations and to reveal some remarkable differences among them. On the whole, Dohm's translation is faithful to the original, while Scheuchzer's is full of free, often arbitrary, paraphrases and supplements. Yet, even Dohm's translation, upon close comparison and examination, reveals differences from Kämpfer's original. Some of them are clearly Dohm's own simple errors and misunderstandings, but some are possibly his intentional alterations. In some cases he changed the positive expressions of the original into negative or neutral ones. Evidently he was highly critical of Kämpfer's excessive admiration of Japan, since at the end of his translation he placed long supplementary notes to show his objections to Kämpfer's several comments or arguments on Japan. It is, therefore, appropriate to conclude that Dohm's personal attitude is reflected in the negative alterations made in his translation.