James Curtis Hepburn - Definition and Overview

James Curtis Hepburn (1815 - 1911) was born in Pennsylvania. He attended Princeton and Pennsylvania universitites and became a doctor. He decided to go to China as a medical missionary but had to stay in Singapore for a year as the Chinese ports were closed to foreigners. After five years as a missionary he returned to the United States (in 1845) and opened a medical practice in New York City.

In 1859 he decided to go to Japan as a medical missionary and it was whilst there he engaged in translating the Japanese language into the Roman alphabet. He is best remembered for the invention of the Hepburn romanization system. He published a number of Japanese-English dictionaries in the later Nineteenth Century.

Also see the article Hepburn for information on his work in translating Japanese.