20 - Perceptions of Etty Hillesum in Japan
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 January 2021
Summary
Abstract
In Japan, the Roman Catholic perception of Etty Hillesum as a saint-like woman or a mystic, is not so common. The Christian population is quite small in Japan, and the religion is not indigenous. The author examines the contrasting Japanese reception of Etty Hillesum, looking especially at the Buddhist perspective, which focuses more on Hillesum's way of looking at life and the world than on her path of seeking her God. The author determines that the fact that Hillesum's work can be understood as easily in a Buddhist milieu shows that her internal achievement was so profound that it can be appreciated in different contexts in different countries.
Keywords: international reception, Japan, Buddhism, Catholicism, cultural differences, Holocaust Literature, Etty Hillesum
And one day I would love to walk through Japanese landscapes. In fact, I am sure that one day I shall go to the East to get to know them better still. Actually I’m sure I shall visit the East one day, to find a daily way of life there that would be thought discordant here.
Two volumes of Etty Hillesum's writings have been published in Japanese translation. Who has read these books, and what they have made of them? To find an answer, I have looked at book reviews in Japanese newspapers and periodicals, and examined references to Etty Hillesum in Japanese publications and on websites. I have also sought to interview a number of Japanese who have engaged with Etty Hillesum's writings in one way or another. This article presents my findings. My goal is to provide a definitive analysis of Etty Hillesum's reception in Japan.
Etty Hillesum in Japanese Translation
In 1986, Professor Ōkoso Yoshiko saw her Japanese translation of Etty Hillesum's diary published as Eros to kami to shūyōjo, and in 1989 Ōkoso's translation of Etty Hillesum's letters came out as Ikiru koto no imi wo motomete. Both of these volumes used as their source text Arnold J. Pomerans's English translations from the original Dutch, respectively, Etty: A Diary, 1941-43 and Etty Hillesum: Letters from Westerbork. Her editor chose the titles for Ōkoso's work, which, when translated into English, are Eros, God, and Concentration Camp, and Searching for the Meaning of Life.
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- Information
- Reading Etty Hillesum in ContextWritings, Life, and Influences of a Visionary Author, pp. 395 - 418Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2018