How to Interpret Historical Terms of Medieval Japanese History in Foreign Languages

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<p>The topic of this article is the translation or interpretation of medieval Japanese historical terms into foreign languages, specifically Chinese and English. The author is a researcher of medieval Japanese history, and her research focuses on Buddhist temples in regional society in late medieval Japan. A part of her work in this project is to conduct trial classes on Japanese history with international students. In 2017, the author gave a lecture in Japanese on religious powers and wars in medieval Japan to Vietnamese students, at Vietnam National University in Hanoi. In 2019, as a guest lecturer in Professor Kayoko Fujita’s class at Ritsumeikan University this semester, the author lectured on Buddhist history of pre-modern Japan in English to international students. These teaching experiences inspired the author to reconsider the approaches to translating and interpreting historical terms into English, and what differences occur when translating or interpreting the same terms into Chinese. The author writes the majority of her research articles in Japanese and Chinese, and she conducts translations of medieval Japanese history books written by Japanese and British scholars. Theses intellectual endeavors involve constant contemplation of the most appropriate ways to describe historical terms unique to Japan in Chinese and English. This is an extremely important issue because it is closely connected with the global dissemination of Japanese history studies. First, the author will briefly introduce the current teaching situation regarding medieval Japanese in China, using Fudan University as an example. Second, she will share her findings through her experiences teaching medieval Japanese and translating/interpreting medieval Japanese historical materials. Third, she will conclude the features of the dissemination of medieval Japanese history studies, focusing on the differences between China and the United States.</p>

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