The 2023 English translation conference, organized as part of the project to retranslate Anecdotes of Oyasama, was held at the Mission Headquarters in America from October 31 to November 4. This project was launched in 2018 on the initiative of the translation committees of the America and Canada Diocese as well as the Hawaii Diocese and attempts to produce a more accessible translation than the current version published in 1977.
There were fifteen participants in total. The participants from the North America translation committee were Rev. Marlon Okazaki, Rev. Takahiko Hayashi, Rev. Michael Yuge, Rev. Hiroko Okazaki, Ms. Hanna Ryono, Ms. Akane Yoshida, and Mr. Raymond Morishita. Attending on site from the Hawaii translation committee were Rev. Colin Saito and Ms. Janyce Imoto. Also from Hawaii, Rev. Tsunenori Ichise, Rev. Tad Iwata, and Ms. Taeko Nakao joined the discussions via Zoom. From the Overseas Department, Translation Section Chief Masanao Nakayama, Mr. Masato Kato, and Mr. Akihiro Yasuda took part in the conference.
The conference benefited also from the dedicated work of many others who had contributed their first drafts and those who had proofread them individually or in small groups beforehand. All participants in the project sincerely engaged in the retranslation efforts while contemplating the Divine Model and the parental love of Oyasama.
Started in 2018, five-day conferences for the Anecdotes project were held six times in total: four times in person in 2018 (Honolulu), 2019 (Los Angeles), 2022 (Honolulu), and 2023 (Los Angeles), and twice online in 2020 and 2021. Also, one-day online conferences were held five times and two-day online conferences eleven times.
After six years of dedication by all involved, the 200 episodes in Anecdotes of Oyasama were successfully discussed by the end of the 2023 conference. This project has now entered its final stage toward the publication of the new translation.
