| Budget Amount *help |
¥2,500,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,500,000)
Fiscal Year 2004: ¥1,200,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,200,000)
Fiscal Year 2003: ¥1,300,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,300,000)
|
|---|
| Research Abstract |
Through the research at Yale University Divinity School, in August, 2003,it has become clear that Bible women played a significant role not only in the Christian overseas mission, serving as a bridge between different cultures, but, as working women, also in the overall enlightenment of women of the Asian, mostly colonial countries where missionaries worked. It is also evident that the skill of (foreign) language was indispensable in preaching Scriptures and communicating with foreign evangelists. Studying at Seiwa University (former Kobe Woman's Evangelistic School) in February 2004 how Bible women were educated in Japan, however, it has been revealed that English was not the main subject to be given to the women students.
It is supposed that in the rapidly modernizing country where the level of education was relatively high, Japanese Bible women, as professional working women, embodied a new version of Western culture. As skilled preachers, some of them even advanced to other Asian countries. They were no longer mere translators, but "translation." Their characteristics are best expressed by the unique KATAKANA English designation of their office, "Baiburu-uman." On the one hand, they are liberated Japanese women armed with the Western knowledge. On the other, they are the Western cultural icons, who ironically represent the Meiji Japan developing into a powerful Imperialistic, colonizing country.
I wrote a paper titled "Bible Women as Translation" and read it at the International Colloquium, "Womanly Expertise : Women's Skills and Modernization of Japan," which I planned, organized, and ran, held on May 25,at Chiba University. Five scholars of different fields and different countries met to read papers there.
|
