1. Eligibility
There are no restrictions whatsoever on translator participation. All translators are encouraged to apply, regardless of whether or not you have worked with us before.

2. Submission
Send your translation to the below address, by regular postal mail or (preferably) E-mail.
Please be sure to read the submission instructions, which cover formatting requirements (for both printouts and electronic files) and provide information on Kurodahan Press standards and other points. Submission instructions are given in the style sheet included in the contest package.
Submitted translations will not be returned, but the translator will retain all applicable rights to the translation. Kurodahan Press will receive first publication rights to the winning translation, to be arranged under a separate and specific agreement.
No information about any submissions, including the names or contact information for people submitting translations, will be made available to any third party, including the judges, with the exception of the name of the winner (or a pseudonym, if the winner prefers). Translators are of course free to tell anyone they wish that they have made submission.

3. Source material
The story to be translated is
笛塚 （1925） by 岡本綺堂 (Roughly 9,500 characters)
The complete submission package, including story to be translated, provisional table of contents for the anthology, style sheet and instructions, is available as a downloadable PDF.
The text is also available from Aozora Bunko as downloadable files in various formats. A scan of a published version of the story is available for reference as well.

4. Application Deadline
Translations must be received no later than September 30, 2008. A notice confirming receipt will be issued.

5. Prize information
Grand Prize, to one winner
50,000 yen prize money, and contract for publication in our upcoming kaiki anthology for an additional payment of 30,000 yen to the winner (first English publication rights; translator retains all other applicable rights to the translation).
Note: Prize payments will be subject to source-tax deductions as required by Japanese law.

6. Submission address and contact
Submissions should be sent (electronically, if possible) to:
Click here to upload file
or to:
Kurodahan Press
3-9-10-403 Tenjin
Chuo-ku, Fukuoka
810-0001 JAPAN

7. Notification
All contest entrants will be informed of the contest results. The winner's name will be posted on the Kurodahan Press website.

8. Judging
All decisions will be final and except in extremely unusual circumstances the reasons for the decision and the specific votes of the judges will not be revealed. The goal of the contest, simply stated, is to produce an English translation faithful to the original, which can be read and enjoyed by someone with no specialized knowledge of Japan or Japanese.

The winner will be selected by the following three judges (alphabetical order by surname):
Juliet Winters Carpenter, Doshisha Women's College of Liberal Arts
Meredith McKinney, Visiting Fellow, Japan Centre, Australian National University
Royall Tyler

The guidelines provided to the jurors for scoring are as follows:

Scoring scheme for Kurodahan Press Translation Prize 2008 submissions

The goals of the contest are given in the announcement as "to produce an English translation faithful to the original, which can be read and enjoyed by someone with no specialized knowledge of Japan or Japanese."

Scoring is broken down into three sections, all of which are left up to your individual subjective judgments. You do not have to give any reason for your decisions; that's why you're jurors.

1. Translation accuracy

This part is fairly straightforward, and can be handled fairly simply by merely rating the translation as

Unsatisfactory: 0 points
Significant translation errors or Japanese-specific issues that are not explained sufficiently for the English-only reader.

Acceptable: 5 points
No major problems, but a lot of nuances and peripheral meanings that would add depth to the work in English have been lost in translation.

Good: 10 points
Pretty obvious.

2. Representation of the original

Probably the most subjective part of all, this is your judgment of how well the translator captured the style, atmosphere, thrust, etc of the author. Naturally no translation will provide the same reading experience as the original, but how close did the translator come? Do you feel that the translator has inserted too many of his own interpretations? Or failed to reasonably convey the intent of the author?
Just go ahead and assign a point total from 0 (terrible) to 10 (superb). Again, 5 would be "acceptable," representing the average translator.

3. English flow

Regardless of how the translator has actually translated the work, how was the English itself? Vocabulary, structure, readability, flavor, etc. Does it still have that "醤油臭さ" with the source Japanese visible between the lines? Does it feel like it was written in English? Perhaps all traces of Japan have been obliterated and it could work equally well in Poughkeepsie?
Just go ahead and assign a point total from 0 (terrible) to 10 (superb). Again, 5 would be "acceptable," representing the average translator.

If everything works properly, this should give each work a total point count of from zero to 90 (three jurors), which should be enough to eliminate ties.

Note on Romanization:
There are many ways to Romanize Japanese, and I don't think we should penalize translators for using uncommon ones. Translating 太郎 as Tarō, Tarou, Taroh or Taro is acceptable (although I personally prefer the first one). If the translator chooses to write Jiro instead, that's just flat wrong.