Translating Amida: Transpacific Japanese Pure Land Buddhism and Religio-Linguistic Translation

When Japanese Pure Land Buddhists came to the United States and Hawaii in the late-nineteenth century, they often translated their religion and traditions into the English language so they could be comprehensible to state institutions and cultural observers. Linguistic translations proved necessary for both simple material reasons, such as filling out legal forms and interacting with American society, and also complex ideological reasons, such as rendering religious expressions, practices, and structures in terms consistent with American definitions of religion. This essay argues Pure Land Buddhist translations between Japanese and English were a function of competing transpacific imperial political projects asserting distinct legal definitions of religion and modernity. An analysis of Japanese and English-language Pure Land Buddhist documents and texts from around the turn of the century demonstrates that language and linguistic translation are significant mechanisms of secular governance and societal power to shape foreign communities into legible subjects.