ABSTRACT
Passing references to translation are quite commonplace in Japan, where intellectuals remain keenly aware of pivotal role it has played in Japan's modernization process. Translation and Japanese Modernity by Maruyama Masao and Kato Shuichi stands out as a valuable exception. Maruyama, a leading postwar political theorist and historian, and Kato, a prominent literary critic and author, had been co-editing The Ideologies of Translation when Maruyama, then in his eighties, suffered a decline in health. Maruyama's response to this initial set of questions is laughter – as he rightly points out, to answer them properly would require a "massive treatise." Maruyama and Kato characterize Japan at this time as "a country of warriors, ruled by samurai." Kato and Maruyama also consider the global turn of events that allowed Japan to "catch up" to modernity by means of translation. Maruyama and Kato also consider question of what led Sorai to become so acutely aware that Chinese was in fact a foreign language.
