James Curtis Hepburn

James Curtis Hepburn

By Ayako Hirose

When you use a computer, how do you type Japanese? Most of the people utilize combination of alphabets to show Japanese letters. The creator of this system, Hepburn Romanization, is James Curtis Hepburn. Hepburn contributed to Japanese development not only as a creator of the Romanization system, but also as a doctor, educator, missionary, and an editor of Japanese English dictionaries.

Hepburn was born in Pennsylvania in 1815, and he learned medical science and became a physician. On the other hand, as he aspired to mission, he moved to Japan as a medical missionary in 1859.

He opened a small clinic in Yokohama for free because he wanted to help Japanese people while Tokugawa shogunate had prevented him to open it. At first, Japanese people had guarded against foreigners, but his tender attitude toward Japanese neighbors and developed Western medical techniques was attractive, so the clinic became crowded. Overall, he treated more than 10,000 patients in Japan.

He taught his knowledge to Japanese students with his wife. As Japanese people started realizing the importance of foreign language and studies, the shogunate offered Hepburn to teach it, and sent nine students. He taught Western medical science, and his wife, who used to be a teacher in New York, covered English education. Later, he established Hebon-juku which is a precursor of Meiji Gakuin University. And another teacher at Hebon-juku founded Ferris Jogakuin. It means Hepburn was concerned with foundation of two famous schools in Japan.

In addition, he worked as a missionary by translating the Bible. It was hard task because Christianity was prohibited by the shogunate in those days. Hepburn and other missionaries worried how to diffuse doctrine of Christianity, and they decided to translate the bible. They started the work in 1872. At first, they referred to Chinese Bible, so Hepburn’s experience in China and Chinese knowledge was useful. They published some books from 1875 to 1880.

Hepburn spoke Japanese fluently, but other American people could not. Usually American and Japanese needed Chinese interpreter who understand both English and Japanese. Therefore, he published Japanese English dictionary to learn Japanese in 1867. His dictionary was the first Japanese English dictionary.

However, Hepburn spent difficult time because those two languages have totally different letters. Then, he created Hepburn Romanization. Thanks to this system, Japanese characters can be written in alphabet.


As Hepburn worked in many fields, he influenced Japan in some ways. So I asked group members what was the most remarkable thing by Hepburn. Each of them had different interests. Hepburn dealt with Japanese people for free. One member seemed to be impressed by his kindness. And one person is interested in translation, so she thought his translation work was great. Others thought that Hepburn was a great educator because he was related to two Universities. Through this discussion, I was surprised because I could listen to various answers. I personally think that Hepburn Romanization was his greatest job because we use the system even today, so I had guessed that most of people would also think so. Actually, they pointed out other things and no one answered that Romanization is the best. I learned that evaluation sometimes differs quite a lot depending on the person.


Before I searched Hepburn, I had only known that “Hebon created Hepburn Romanization”. I did not even know that Hebon is kind of his nickname, and his real name was Hepburn, and I also had never heard that he actually came to Japan as a missionary. It was surprising that one person mastered such broad areas of knowledge, and brought many results. Though he was a missionary, some of his achievements had no relation to Christianity. Through listening to other presentation, I knew that like Hepburn, many missionaries came to Japan and worked on medical treatment, education and other studies. The number of Christians did not increase so much in Japan; however, their efforts enriched Japanese country and all the people living in Japan.


References

“James Curtis Hepburn” Wikipedia, retrieved 2014, December 12 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Curtis_Hepburn

Mochiduki, Y. (1987). ヘボンの生涯と日本語. Tokyo: Toyo Insatsu Kabushikigaisya.

Takaya, M. (1961). ヘボン. Tokyo: Nihon Rekishi Gakkai.

James Curtis Hepburn

James Curtis Hepburn

By Kohei Ishizuka

James Curtis Hepburn was born in America in 1815. He was a missionary and also medical scientist. He was influential with Japanese people because he did lots of good things in Japan, such as making hospital, cram school, Meiji Gakuin and Japanese-English dictionary. He died when he was 96 years old. In that time, that age was really old. I think he was a doctor so he could live long years.

Before he came to Japan, he went to two universities in America. In 1828 he entered Priceton University. In that university he learned about pedagogy. When he was a child, he was interested in pedagogy. However, while he was attending that university he became interested in medical science so after he graduated that university he went to another university to learn medical science in 1832. He graduated that university in 1838. After that he had a dream. It was to tell about Christianity to foreign countries. He decided to go to foreign country. Before he went there, he met Clara, the woman who was to be his wife. She was also Christian and had the same dream. In 1840 he married her. After he got married he decided to go to China.

In 1843, James and Clara went to China to tell Christianity but at that time, there was Opium war in China so they got disease because of that. They decided to go back to America. Actually they got their child in there. However their child was dead before their child was born because of the war.

In 1846, James went back to America and started hospital in New York. There were so many people who immigrated there and many sick people, so many people went to his hospital. James graduated university which was for learning medical science so he was a good doctor there. In 1858, he decided to go to Japan with Clara because of Nichibei Shukoutsushou Jyouyaku.

In 1859 James and Clara arrived in Yokohama in Japan. At first he started hospital like in New York, but he couldn’t speak Japanese so it was difficult to see sick people. However he had a good skill about medical science. After few months so many people went to his hospital. In one day he saw 100 sick people in his hospital. At same time he and Clara started a cram school because they wanted to spread Christianity, but Bible was all written in English so he decided to translate to Japanese. At first he made Japanese-English dictionary which is to learn English for Japanese people, but Japanese people couldn’t read English. He made Romaji [Editor's note: Japanese uses a pictorial alphabet. Romaji are a way of writing Japanese phonetically in Latin characters] in 1866, and because of that Japanese people could more easily read English. In 1880 he translated old testament from English to Japanese. He also made university which is Meiji Gakuin in 1887. In 1892 he and his wife went back to America because his wife got disease. In 1911 he died in America.

If there was no dictionary and not so many information about country which I have never been to, I wouldn’t go there and I may not have the idea of creating a dictionary so I really respect him.

Reference list

http://meijigakuin.ac.jp/guide.history.html

http://meijigakuin.ac.jp/guide.history_en.html

James Curtis Hepburn

By Hansol Lyu

Have you heard the name of James Curtis Hepburn? I had never heard this name before the class. In this semester, I researched about James Curtis Hepburn for my presentation then I became interested in his life. Thus, I will explain about his life in Japan.

He was born in 1815 in Milton, Pennsylvania. His father was a lawyer and his mother was daughter of minister of chapel. He entered the Princeton University, when he was 16 years old. After graduating, he entered again the University of Pennsylvania. Then, he studied medical science. At this time, he became interested in Christianity, because he was influenced by his grandfather who was a minister of chapel.

After graduating the University of Pennsylvania, he married Clara Mary Leete. In addition, in 1858, the United States start to trade with Japan. In this period, American’s Greek missionaries thought this was chance to impart thinking of the Christianity in Japan. The Christianity association decided to send missionaries to Japan. Hepburn had strong interest in Eastern Christianity, so he often checked the magazine and newspaper of missionary. Then he founded the article decision of the Christianity association and he applied for that. Therefore, he and his wife went to Japan to spread the Christianity in 1859.

　

James Curtis Hepburn & Clara Mary Leete

Hepburn arrived Japan in 1859 at Kanagawa prefecture. In 1859, the thinking that Japan was a closed country still remained. Many thought that foreigner should be killed or forced out Japan. This thinking was called “Jyoiron (攘夷論)”. In addition, Japan prohibited Christianity. If people did not follow the law, they might be killed by government. He was afraid of this situation. Thereby, Hepburn could not move freely and spread the Christianity. He decided to open the hospital at Soukou temple in Japan. He studied about medical science in the university, and he was famous doctor when he lived in America. He did surgery and ophthalmology treatment for Japanese. Also, he did not get the money from patients and he could treat about 3,500 people. However, the hospital closed in just 5 months because even though the hospital became famous, he was worried about the eyes of the people to have thinking of “Jyoiron (攘夷論)”. 

After closing the hospital, Hepburn’s wife Clara founded Hepburn cram school. At this time, Hepburn was busy making Japanese-English dictionary, so his wife was in charge of the cram school. She wanted to teach English to Japanese women. This cram school became the Ferris University now.

This picture shows Ferris University

Hepburn published the Japanese-English dictionary in 1867. He thought the dictionary is necessary to convey a correct meaning of the Bible, so he made the Japanese-English dictionary by using Romaji [Editor’s note: Japanese is a pictorial language – romaji is a system of writing it phonetically using the Latin alphabet]. Thereby, Americans were able to pronounce Japanese. 20 years later, he completed translation of the Bible.

In 1873, he could establish a church, his dream achieved 17 years after he came to Japan. Maybe, the church is one of the ways to spread the Christianity for him.

He related with various things in Japan. Firstly, he treated a lot of Japanese patients. Secondly, Hepburn and his wife tried to supply food education’s environment for Japanese. Finally, he made an effort to spread the Christianity in Japan and he attained it. I felt his love for Japan. He was always afraid of the Jyoiron (攘夷論), but he did not escape from Japan. Rather, he helped Japanese. I was really impressed by his action and thinking.


References

No name.(n.d).Retrieved January 13,2014 from A great man of Kanagawa- a great man of Japan(神奈川の偉人-日本の偉人) web site: http://www.hebon.sonanda.net/990hebon.html

Seiji, N.(2011). The James Curtis Hepburn’s achievements-宣教医、教育者として日本社会に貢献したアメリカ人-, The University of Tokyo Ariakeiryou, Tokyo. website: http://www.tau.ac.jp/outreach/TAUjournal/2011/06-nakayama.pdf#search='%E4%B8%AD%E5%B1%B1+%E3%83%98%E3%83%9C%E3%83%B3'