James Curtis Hepburn was an American physician, educator, translator and lay Christian missionary. He is known for the Hepburn romanization system for transliteration of the Japanese language into the Latin alphabet, which he popularized in his Japanese–English dictionary.
James Curtis Hepburn
Bust of Hepburn at Meiji Gakuin University
Hepburn Hall at Yokohama City University, Yokohama, Japan
Hepburn and his family in Japan on April 29, 1880
Hepburn romanization is the main system of romanization for the Japanese language. The system was originally published in 1867 by American Christian missionary and physician James Curtis Hepburn as the standard in the first edition of his Japanese–English dictionary. The system is distinct from other romanization methods in its use of English orthography to phonetically transcribe sounds: for example, the syllable is written as shi and is written as cha, reflecting their spellings in English.
James Curtis Hepburn, creator of the system
Former Japan National Railways-style board of Toyooka Station. For the two adjacent stations, "GEMBUDŌ" follows the Hepburn romanization system, but "KOKUHU" follows the Nihon-shiki/Kunrei-shiki romanization system.