Stewartia Pseudocamellia (Korean Stewartia) 婆羅双樹（ホントは夏椿）

Japanese follows English. 英語の後に日本語が続きます。

They are the fruit of the stewartia pseudocamellia or Korean stewartia or Japanese stewartia I saw at Tennōji temple in Ueno, Tokyo. It took me two hours to identify the tree for a reason you can see in the third photo...

Stewartia pseudocamellia 沙羅双樹？

Korean stewartia 夏椿

The stone pillar says "sal tree," but it's not 沙羅の木じゃないのに｡｡｡

The stone pillar in the third photo says "sal tree," so naturally I thought the tree was a sal tree and about to write about the Taira clan, i.e., one of the four most important clans that dominated Japanese politics during the Heian period (794-1185), but destroyed by the Minamoto clan at the end of the 12th century. I said "naturally" because the tree name "sal tree" reminds most Japanese people of The Tale of the Heike (Taira Clan), which starts with this tree name.

But the tree and fruit in these photos didn't look like those of the sal tree I found on the internet at all. Then I found the answer! What the stone pillar says is "sal tree" is not a sal tree but Japanese stewartia. It's not clear why, but some say that because Japan has no sal trees, temples have started to plant the trees, which have similar leaves and white flowers blooming at around the same time or Buddhist monks mistook sal trees for Japanese stewartia.

You may not find this so interesting, but this can be a very serious problem for translators like me because although this is a mistake due to the original Japanese text (which says "sal tree"), but could be easily believed to be the translator's😭!! 
 

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上野天王寺で見かけた「婆羅双樹（沙羅双樹）」です。カッコ書きにしたのには理由があります。ホントは婆羅双樹（沙羅双樹）ではないんです。

何でも日本には、お釈迦様に縁の深い沙羅の木がなかったので、葉が似ていて同じ頃に白い花の咲く夏椿（ナツツバキ）を代わりに寺院などに植えたとか、夏椿を見たお坊さんが沙羅の木（サラノキ）と間違ったとか言われています。夏椿だということが分かるまで結構な時間がかかりました。

どうでもいい？いえいえ、これって翻訳者にとっては重要な問題なんです。だって元の日本語の間違いってよく翻訳者のせいにされるんですもの😭

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