Tricky Translations: Religious Vocabulary

We are only four days away from the official release of Touhou Meijinka ~ Song of Divine Tempest. Although I served as producer and lead programmer on the title, I was also in charge of the game’s Japanese localization.

Localization is rarely a straightforward process. Having to account for things such as cultural and grammatical differences can make things one unholy mess. What gets even more tricky is whenever a language has a unique word the other lacks. When words like these come up, localizers would usually need to get creative and come up with their own translations for said term. In fact, it is not uncommon for a single word to have several translations in the other language. For example, the terms for Great Demon King (大魔王), Four Heavenly Kings (四天王), and Lost Forest (迷いの森), which regularly appear in Japanese popular culture, has accrued numerous translations from over the years. After all, it would get boring if translators repeatedly use the literal translation of the original term.

Song of Divine Tempest incorporates a lot of religious vocabulary from not just Christianity and Catholicism, but terms from Judaism also come into the mix. While many words in Shintoism and Buddhism have Japanese-language translations since both faiths are observed primarily in Japan, the Abrahamic religions of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam are minority religions in the country. As a result, not many houses of worships for those faiths are available, and many words from them don’t have Japanese-language translations.

Actually, Emiko Hosokawa, who knows some Japanese aside from English and her native Vietnamese, came up with the translations for many of those religious terms mentioned in the game. I’ve encountered the same problem when I was writing the script for Touhou Kourinden ~ Mythos of Phantasmagoria as I incorporated a few Christian lines. This was before Song of Divine Tempest entered development.

If you look at this list from the Trinitarian Bible Society, they have compiled an entire glossary of terms that are used in the Bible. Even though it may have taken over a millennium to write it, the Bible has been translated into numerous languages. Some terms used in the Bible have gotten lost in translation. Same thing goes for any other religious text (including those outside Christianity) that had ever been translated.

How are these terms used in-game?

WARNING: This article contains spoilers for Touhou Meijinka ~ Song of Divine Tempest. We don’t recommend reading this section until you’ve played through the game at least once.

This table concerns several religious terms and figures that were given Japanese names by Hosokawa. I will start with the final stage first.

Term in English	Japanese Translation
Primordial Storm	原始の嵐
Angel of Thunder	雷の天使
Matriarch of Horikawa	堀川の女家長
Harbinger of Joy and Hope	雷の天使と喜びと希望
Praise the Lord	主を讃榮せよ
Welkin Palace	楽園浄殿
Trinity	聖三位一体

And the extra stage.

Term in English	Japanese Translation
God	神様
The Son	神様の子
Holy Spirit	聖霊
Agents	代理人
Jewish Kabbalah	ユダヤ教カバラ

The Search Continues

While it doesn’t matter how religious terms are translated into other languages, you will have learned how a single word exclusive to a certain ethnic or religious culture can become troublesome to translate. We know that global cultures and religions are separate things, but languages aren’t and can get twisted like a bunch of messy computer wires. You will certainly get zapped if you aren’t sure or careful on where you plug words into foreign languages.

If you encounter any other instances of religious terms used in translation, let me know in the comments or on social media, and I will update this article in the meantime.