Here’s an example where the literal Japanese translation is superior to the English “localization”.
In Princess Mononoke, the localized version says their iron comes from "under the mountain”, but the literal translation is very different
Why? What’s going on here? A thread
1/🧵
Oct 15, 2024 · 4:38 PM UTC
In the “localized” version, the townsfolk say they need to “dig for the iron” under the mountain.
This makes sense to us, because we think of iron as something you mine, but this is NOT where iron came from in 14th century Japan, where the movie takes place.
2/🧵
In the literal translation, they instead say they used up the iron “in the sand by the lake” so they have to clear the trees by the mountain to get more SAND.
Japan didn’t have big iron ore deposits, so they had to get it from sand. But how do you get iron from sand?
3/🧵
It’s actually surprisingly EASY and can be done almost anywhere in the world.
Bits of iron are found in most rock formations. As rain flows down from mountains into rivers, a little bit of iron oxide comes with.
You can extract it with a magnet, but there's an easier way
4/🧵
Since iron is heavier than other sand particles, you can concentrate it by carving grooves into clay and running river (or lake) sand over it.
You can get a surprisingly high concentration of iron oxide this way, no magnet needed. But then what?
5/🧵
Then you convert the iron oxide into elemental iron by SMELTING it, which utilizes charcoal to achieve the 1250 °C (2282 °F) temperature necessary.
Charcoal is what they’re carrying in those baskets. But why burn charcoal instead of wood?
6/🧵
Because it burns MUCH hotter than wood. You can think of it as “pre-chewed” wood. It's made by heating wood WITHOUT oxygen present. No oxygen = no combustion!
So you get the “precursor” steps out of the way. All that's left is the combustion step when we burn the charcoal.
7/🧵
The temperature achieved by burning charcoal is hot enough to convert iron oxide into elemental iron, but it’s NOT hot enough to liquify it, which is good.
The impurities, on the other hand, do liquify and pour out of the bottom of the smelter. This is called “slag”.
8/🧵
So we get a mix of iron and STEEL (iron + carbon from the charcoal).
In the 14th century, they didn’t have an easy way of making sure all parts of the steel had the same amount of carbon and impurities.
This is an issue if we’re making a steel katana. So what do we do?
9/🧵
This is where FOLDING comes in. Folding is just a way of mixing up your block of steel to evenly distribute carbon and impurities.
You heat it up in a forge, fold it in half, pound it back down, then fold it half again. Repeat until your steel is katana-ready!
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