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In this NHK News Web Easy article, I'm having trouble understanding the sentence

新しい1万円のお札には、「近代日本の経済の父」と呼ばれている渋沢栄一がデザインしてあります｡

Specifically, my (incorrect) attempt would be "The new 10,000¥ note was designed by Shibusawa Eiichi, who is called the father of the modern Japanese economy." However, a more correct translation is apparently something like, "The design of the new 10,000¥ note features Shibusawa Eiichi, who is called the father of the modern Japanese economy."

As I understand the sentence, Shibusawa Eiichi is the subject of デザインする, hence my confusion. Naïvely, I'd write something like

新しい1万円のお札には、「近代日本の経済の父」と呼ばれている渋沢栄一のデザインしてあります。

I've checked a few dictionaries (namely, Jisho and Kodansha's Furigana Japanese English Dictionary, as well as some online example sentences), and none of them indicate that the subject of デザインする has a special role. Should I simply treat 〜がデザインする as a set phrase? Or, is it the presence of してある that's causing my confusion?

EDIT: To clarify my question, what is the specific meaning of が in the original sentence? Because of 〜てある, should I literally translate the sentence as "For the new 10,000¥ note, Shibusawa Eiichi, who is called the father of the modern Japanese economy, was designed."?

Joshua Grosso
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1 Answers1

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～てある is a grammatical construct that indicates that something has been put in a certain unchanging state.

Consider the following sentence:

テーブルの上には、様々な料理が並べられてある。

"There are various dishes lined up on the table" would be one way to translate this. The dishes are in the unchanging state of being lined up, hence てある.

This line you posted:

新しい1万円のお札には、「近代日本の経済の父」と呼ばれている渋沢栄一がデザインしてあります。

can be interpreted as something along the lines of

"Shibusawa Eiichi, referred to by many as the father of modern Japanese economics, is designed onto the 10,000 yen note."

Shibusawa Eiichi is in the unchanging state of being embedded onto the aforementioned yen note, hence てある.

Crow
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  • Thanks for the answer! Would that translation also apply to the original, which uses 〜がデザインしてある instead of 〜のデザインしてある? – Joshua Grosso Jan 07 '24 at 23:55
  • I've just edited my question to try to make it clearer. – Joshua Grosso Jan 08 '24 at 00:06
  • 並べてある is closer to デザインしてある. – aguijonazo Jan 08 '24 at 04:09
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    @JoshuaGrosso Apologies for the late response. I intended to quote the version that uses が as opposed to the one with の. I've edited my answer to reflect that. 「のデザインしてある」 doesn't really make sense grammatically. – Crow Feb 02 '24 at 02:51