James Curtis Hepburn
James Curtis Hepburn (born March 13, 1815 in Milton , Pennsylvania , † September 21, 1911 in East Orange , New Jersey ) was an American missionary and linguist in Japan .
Hepburn's work, a Japanese-English dictionary, contributed significantly to the spread of the later hebonshiki rōmaji or Hepburn system for converting Japanese Kana script into Latin script. The conversion tables are also referred to as Hepburn tables. The foundations of his work, however, do not come from himself, but from the work of a commission of scholars from the previous year 1885.
James Hepburn compiled the first Japanese-English dictionary, the Waei gorin shūsei , in 1867 .
He moved to Japan in 1859 during the Edo period to teach Western medicine. He lived in the small town of Kanagawa (now Kanagawa District in Yokohama ) and in Yokohama and in 1886 was one of the founders of the Meiji Gakuin University in Tōkyō , of which he was the first president. From 1874 to 1888 he headed a committee of Western and Japanese translators who translated the entire Bible into Japanese using Romaji .
Web links
- JC ヘ ボ ン CV on the website of 明治 学院 歴 史 資料 館 Meiji Gakuin Archives of History (Japanese)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Hepburn, James Curtis |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American missionary and linguist in Japan |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 13, 1815 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Milton |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 21, 1911 |
| Place of death | East Orange |