Donald Keene awarded Order of Culture
Asahi reports that 86-year-old American Japanologist Donald Keene has become one of only a handful of foreigners to be awarded Japan’s Order of Culture:
Keene became interested in Japanese culture after reading the Arthur Waley translation of “The Tale of Genji” when he was 18.
During his long career, Keene has covered a wide range of genres, from the classics, such as “Kojiki,” the oldest surviving history book in Japan completed in the eighth century, to the plays of Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653-1724) and the works of contemporary authors, including Yukio Mishima (1925-1970) and Kobo Abe (1924-1993).
“Since there were so few scholars of Japanese literature, I thought I had to teach everything about Japanese literature once I was employed at university,” Keene recalled. “Since I had no one who preceded me, I had to explain in my theses such simple matters as futon and sushi.”
Keene has been translating and writing books about Japanese literature and history since the 1950′s, so if you’ve taken a Japan-related course at any university in an English-speaking country, chances are you’ve come across something Keene wrote.
Here are three Keene works I would recommend to readers interested in Japan:
- Chronicles of My Life: An American in the Heart of Japan
– Keene’s 50+ years as a Japan scholar have given him a lot of interesting personal experiences to write about. In his memoir he shares stories of his friendships with some of modern Japan’s greatest authors (Kawabata, Mishima, Oe, etc).
- Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, 1852-1912
– One of the few good English language books out there about the Westernization of Japan during the Meiji Era. (Warning – this book is over 700 pages long!)
- Essays in Idleness
– I must confess that in my university days, I didn’t particular enjoy studying pre-modern Japanese literature. There were a few assigned readings that I did enjoy, and one of them was Keene’s translation of this collection of whimsical essays written by a Japanese monk in the 12th century. Some excerpts can be found on this site. (Keene has told the Japanese press that this was his favorite translation.)
- Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
- dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
- Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan (Subscribe)
