Foreign Correspondence on Recent Hardy Scholarship in Japan: Bibliographical Commentary III

FOREIGN CORRESPONDENCE ON RECENT HARDY SCHOLARSHIP IN JAPAN: BIBLIOGRAPHICAL COMMENTARY III By Minoru Oda (Fukuoka University of Education) Background to A Thomas Hardy Dictionary In this country, a fair number of publications are produced on Hardy every year. Criticism as well as polished translations of his works demonstrate the sincerity of Japan's devotion to Hardy the novelist and poet. Among recent publications is the long-awaited appearance of A Thomas Hardy Dictionary (THD), compiled by the Thomas Hardy Society of Japan. After nearly fifty years of enduring fermentation, the dictionary saw the light in July 1984. It is based upon the original manuscripts first edited by Professors Mamoru Ösawa, Yoshinoshin Goto, Takashi Iijima, J. O. Bailey, Roy Morrell, F. N. Pinion and Harold Orel, and later condensed and amended by Professors Sabro Minakawa and Michio Yoshikawa (Editor-in-Chief). No one will grudge giving unstinted praise to this monumental publication which was embellished by the unflagging students of Hardy in a country whose people do not speak English as their mother tongue. In tracing the long history of the dictionary, we discover it was first conceived in 1936. Reflecting upon the past days when he worked side by side with Professor Ösawa at Yonezawa Higher Technical School (now the Faculty of Engineering, Yamagata University), Toshio Ogawa states that Ösawa drew up a blueprint for A Thomas Hardy Glossary to be jointly edited with Shun Katayama, but that scheme was discontinued by the untimely death of the coeditor Katayama. Ösawa's ultimate plan, however, was never foiled. Indeed, because various dictionaries and other scientific books published in English-speaking countries were not sufficient for the Japanese students of Hardy, Ösawa was correctly convinced that the projected glossary was indispensable if Hardy scholarship in Japan was to attain, perhaps even surpass, that of the international community. To the basic materials he collected in collaboration with Katayama, Ösawa added others supplied by Bunnosuke Yamamoto, and in October 1959, two years after the founding of the Thomas Hardy Society in Japan, five members were appointed as the editorial staff for the compilation of the glossary: Professors Ösawa, Goto, Yamamoto, Iijima, and Yusaka Ida. In 1960, the editorial department was reinforced by adding four more members of the Society to the staff. At the sixth annual convention of the Thomas Hardy Society held at Meiji-Gakuin University (June 1963), then President Ösawa proposed that the compilation of A Thomas Hardy Glossary be undertaken as a joint project of the Society. A new editorial committee of nine members was organized to promote the adopted Ereject. The first manuscripts (1,301 pages) were accordingly prepared on the asÃ-s of the previous source materials. The next editorial committee, consisting of Ösawa, Iijima, and Goto, expanded the first manuscripts and, with advisory assistance from Professors Bailey, Pinion and Orel, completed the 379 second group of manuscripts (2,662 pages) in December 1977. The projected glossary was then renamed A Thomas Hardy Dictionary. Addenda and Corrections (1,169 pages) were brought forth two years later. In 1980 the three-member committee started reviewing the second manuscripts as well as Addenda and Corrections to consolidate them into a harmonious work. Only a few months had elapsed, however, before Professor Ösawa passed away on the verge of arriving at his long-sought goal, and, to add to the regrettable misfortune, Professor Iijima followed him in October. Thus Professor Goto, the only remaining member of the final editorial staff, had to cope with the gigantic enterprise singlehandedly in his own study. In October 1981, the text was completed (4,079 pages), except for the preface and appendix. In March 1982, the first publication committee was called to take the initial step toward bringing the dictionary to the world. But there was again an unfortunate difficulty to negotiate. Because of the general economic depression brought about by the so-called "oil shock," the committee could find no publisher who would accept Goto's massive document. They had to create a new plan and, following the advice tendered by Meicho-Fukyakai (The Society for Spreading Famous Books), cut down the large text to one-eighth its original size—and with a thousand pities...