ABSTRACT
In the preface to Translation Words Yanabu Akira problematizes the gap between what he calls "translation words" and the everyday language of Japanese spoken at home and in the workplace. "In the beginning was the Word" traces the "jewelry box effect" through Japanese translations of the Bible to find its roots in the Japanese reception of Buddhist scriptures from China. Yanabu's investigations into the status of Japanese translation words for Western concepts and linguistic phenomena present a number of technical challenges for even the most dexterous of Japanese–English translators. Special measures were also taken to preserve the philological connections between translation words and pre-existing elements of the Japanese lexicon discussed by Yanabu. Translation has been undertaken most prolifically by the West. Christianity lies at the heart of this phenomenon. With the inception of the Protestant religious reform movement in the sixteenth century, the Catholic Church responded by making aggressive efforts to venture into the outside world.
