@article{oai:minpaku.repo.nii.ac.jp:00004440,
 author = {大塚, 和夫 and Ohtsuka, Kazuo},
 issue = {2},
 journal = {国立民族学博物館研究報告, Bulletin of the National Museum of Ethnology},
 month = {Aug},
 note = {The Japanese say that Muslims believe in Ara-no-Kami (God of
Allah). This idiom, Ara-no-Kami, is a compound word consisting of
Kami (god or deity in Japanese) and Ara- (the Japanese rendering of
Allah, Islamic God). Most Japanese do not doubt that the idiom
is an exact translation of the word Allah. In this paper the exactness
of the translation in conveying to the Japanese the meaning of one of
the most significant concepts in Islamic cosmology is disscussed.
In this respect Saussurian semiology recently interpreted by K.
Maruyama was found to be useful. First, two words-sets, one Japanese
and the other Arabic, are examined. These words convey a meaning
akin to god, deity or supernatural being. From this it was concluded
that the value of the word kami, as a sign in the Japanese language
system, differs greatly from that of Allah in Arabic. Thus a simple
rendering of Allah as Kami might be erroneous. Moreover, the idiom
Ara-no-Kami is more than just a mistranslation. Clearly, the Japanese
consider the Islamic God as one of many gods, since the word
kami connotes not one but many gods (eight million according to a
common expression) which is quite opposite to the creed of the orthodox
Islamic faith. Indeed, the first of the five pillars of Islamic creed
is shahada, a confession of faith, which is represented in the phrase
"there is no god but Allah (God) ."
Difficulties of translation imply more than the mere correct
rendering of words, for in them resides the entire complex problem
of "the translation of culture," a central tenet of anthropological
methodology.},
 pages = {383--419},
 title = {アッラー，神，アラーの神 : イスラームの日本的理解をめぐる一考察},
 volume = {9},
 year = {1984},
 yomi = {オオツカ, カズオ}
}