Japan’s Translated Religion

Christianity, Transculturality and Translation Cultures in the 16^th and 17^th Centuries

The project aims at contributing to research of Early Modern translation cultures in a phase of lively transcultural exchanges between Europe and East Asia, here specifically Japan, from the perspective of religious studies. It looks at the dynamics of exchange processes between Catholic missionaries and Buddhists in late medieval and Early Modern Japan. From the encounter of two radically different translation cultures beginning with the Jesuit Mission in 1549, new approaches of translation and language theory developed in Japan – and entangled with it in Europe – that have so far not been investigated closely. Emic considerations of language and translation theory in Early Modern East Asian culture provide an important case for comparative research on other non-European regions and Early Modern Europe.

Project director Dr Katja Triplett explores primary sources such as prints from the Japanese Jesuit mission press in a comparative view to further extend the field of current translation theory. The research project is associated with the Humanities Center of Advanced Studies ‘Multiple Secularities – Beyond the West, Beyond Modernities’ at the University of Leipzig.

Project website at the University of Leipzig.

Publications (project-related):

• Dr Katja Triplett