Senuma Kayō (; December 11, 1875 – February 28, 1915) was a Japanese translator and teacher. She was the first woman to translate

Russian literature Russian literature refers to the literature of Russia and its émigrés and to Russian language, Russian-language literature. The roots of Russian literature can be traced to the Middle Ages, when epics and chronicles in Old East Slavic were c ...

to Japanese.

Early life and education

Senuma was born Ikuko Yamada on December 11, 1875, in what is now Takasaki, Gunma. She grew up as a member of the

Eastern Orthodox church The Eastern Orthodox Church, also called the Orthodox Church, is the second-largest Christian church, with approximately 220 million baptized members. It operates as a communion of autocephalous churches, each governed by its bishops via ...

, and attended a religious girls' school in

Surugadai is a district of Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It was named after Tokugawa Ieyasu's death, when the Edo government allowed officials from Sunpu (now Shizuoka) to live in the area. Kanda-Surugadai is often called or, colloquially, . The main building ...

, Tokyo. She earned excellent grades and graduated in 1892. After graduation she began writing for a literary magazine, and was published in many issues. In 1896 she received Russian books from Nicholas of Japan, and learned to read them with the help of Senuma Kakusaburo, a priest at the

Tokyo Resurrection Cathedral , also known as , in Chiyoda, Tokyo, is the main cathedral of the Japanese Orthodox Church. History The founder of the Japanese Orthodox Church Ivan Dmitrievich Kasatkin (1836–1912), later St. Nicholas of Japan, was an archbishop who dev ...

. They married in 1897 and had six children.

Career

Kakusaburo introduced her to

Ozaki Kōyō was a Japanese author and poet. His real name was , and he was also known by various noms de plume including and . Biography Ozaki was the only son of Kokusai (), a well-known carver in the Meiji period. Ozaki is known as a classic Japanes ...

, who took her on as a disciple and welcomed her into his literary group. She published many of her early translations jointly with him until his death in 1903. Senuma was also on the staff of the '' Seito'' feminist literary magazine. Senuma primarily translated works by

Anton Chekov Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (; 29 January 1860 Old Style date 17 January. – 15 July 1904 Old Style date 2 July.) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer who is considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time. His career ...

and

Fyodor Dostoevsky Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (, ; rus, Фёдор Михайлович Достоевский, Fyódor Mikháylovich Dostoyévskiy, p=ˈfʲɵdər mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪdʑ dəstɐˈjefskʲɪj, a=ru-Dostoevsky.ogg, links=yes; 11 November 18219 ...

. She was the first Japanese woman to translate directly from Russian to Japanese during a time when many Japanese translators translated from English. One of her most well-known translations was a partial translation of Dostoevsky's ''

Poor Folk ''Poor Folk'' (russian: Бедные люди, ''Bednye lyudi''), sometimes translated as ''Poor People'', is the first novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky, written over the span of nine months between 1844 and 1845. Dostoevsky was in financial difficult ...

'', from which she only translated Varvara's story. She also translated Chekov's ''

Uncle Vanya ''Uncle Vanya'' ( rus, Дя́дя Ва́ня, r=Dyádya Ványa, p=ˈdʲædʲə ˈvanʲə) is a play by the Russian playwright Anton Chekhov. It was first published in 1898, and was first produced in 1899 by the Moscow Art Theatre under the direct ...

'' and ''

The Cherry Orchard ''The Cherry Orchard'' (russian: Вишнёвый сад, translit=Vishnyovyi sad) is the last play by Russian playwright Anton Chekhov. Written in 1903, it was first published by ''Znaniye'' (Book Two, 1904), and came out as a separate edition ...

'', Aleksei Nicholaevich Budischev's ''Northeast Wind,'' and works by Ivan Turgenev. Her penname was Senuma Kayō. She visited Russia twice, once in 1909 and again in 1911. There is some concern that some of her translations, most notably an incomplete translation of

Leo Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich TolstoyTolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; russian: link=no, Лев Николаевич Толстой,In Tolstoy's day, his name was written as in pre-refor ...

's '' Anna Karenina'', were actually translated by her husband. Scholar Satoko Kan suggests that while ''Anna Karenina'' was probably translated by Kakusaburo, ''Poor Folk'' was not. Senuma died on February 28, 1915, from complications while giving birth to her seventh child.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Senuma, Kayō 1875 births 1915 deaths Japanese translators Japanese educators People from Takasaki, Gunma Japanese women educators 19th-century Japanese translators Deaths in childbirth 20th-century Japanese women educators 20th-century Japanese educators

Early life and education

Career

See also

References