Donald Lawrence Keene (June 18, 1922 – February 24, 2019) was an American-born Japanese scholar, historian, teacher, writer and translator of

Japanese literature Japanese literature throughout most of its history has been influenced by cultural contact with neighboring Asian literatures, most notably China and its literature. Early texts were often written in pure Classical Chinese or , a Chinese-Japanes ...

. Keene was University

Professor emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

and Shincho Professor Emeritus of Japanese Literature at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, where he taught for over fifty years. Soon after the

2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami The occurred at 14:46 Japan Standard Time, JST (05:46 UTC) on 11 March. The Moment magnitude scale, magnitude 9.0–9.1 (M) Submarine earthquake, undersea megathrust earthquake had an epicenter in the Pacific Ocean, east of the Oshika Peni ...

, he retired from Columbia, moved to Japan permanently, and acquired citizenship under the name . This was also his poetic and occasional nickname, spelled in the '' ateji'' form .

Early life and education

Keene was born in 1922 in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, New York City and attended James Madison High School. He received a

Bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to si ...

from

in 1942 and studied under

Mark Van Doren Mark Van Doren (June 13, 1894 – December 10, 1972) was an American poet, writer and critic. He was a scholar and a professor of English at Columbia University for nearly 40 years, where he inspired a generation of influential writers and thi ...

Moses Hadas Moses Hadas (June 25, 1900, Atlanta, Georgia – August 17, 1966) was an American teacher, a classical scholar, and a translator of numerous works from Greek, Hebrew, Latin, and German. Life Raised in Atlanta in a Yiddish-speaking Orthodox J ...

Lionel Trilling Lionel Mordecai Trilling (July 4, 1905 – November 5, 1975) was an American literary critic, short story writer, essayist, and teacher. He was one of the leading U.S. critics of the 20th century who analyzed the contemporary cultural, social, ...

, and

Jacques Barzun Jacques Martin Barzun (; November 30, 1907 – October 25, 2012) was a French-American historian known for his studies of the history of ideas and cultural history. He wrote about a wide range of subjects, including baseball, mystery novels, and ...

. He then studied the Japanese language at the United States Navy Japanese Language School in

Boulder, Colorado Boulder is a home rule city that is the county seat and most populous municipality of Boulder County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 108,250 at the 2020 United States census, making it the 12th most populous city in Colora ...

and in

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and E ...

, and served as an

intelligence officer An intelligence officer is a person employed by an organization to collect, compile or analyze information (known as intelligence) which is of use to that organization. The word of ''officer'' is a working title, not a rank, used in the same way ...

in the Pacific region during World War II. Upon his discharge from the

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

, he returned to Columbia where he earned a master's degree in 1947. Keene studied for a year at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...

before transferring to

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

as a Henry Fellow, where he earned a second master's and became a Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge from 1948 to 1954, and a University Lecturer from 1949 to 1955. In the interim, in 1953, he also studied at

Kyoto University , mottoeng = Freedom of academic culture , established = , type = Public (National) , endowment = ¥ 316 billion (2.4 billion USD) , faculty = 3,480 (Teaching Staff) , administrative_staff = 3,978 (Total Staff) , students = ...

, and earned a PhD from Columbia in 1949. Keene credits Ryūsaku Tsunoda as a mentor during this period. While studying in the East Asian library at Columbia in 1941, a man whom Keene did not know invited him to dinner at the Chinese restaurant where Keene and Lee, a Chinese-American Columbia graduate student, ate every day. The man's name was Jack Kerr, and he had lived in Japan for several years and taught English in Taiwan. Kerr invited Keene to study Japanese in the summer from a student he taught in Taiwan, for Kerr to have competition when learning Japanese. Their tutor was Inomata Tadashi, and they were taught elementary spoken Japanese and

kanji are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are still used, along with the subsequ ...

. While staying at Cambridge, Keene went to meet

Arthur Waley Arthur David Waley (born Arthur David Schloss, 19 August 188927 June 1966) was an English orientalist and sinologist who achieved both popular and scholarly acclaim for his translations of Chinese and Japanese poetry. Among his honours were t ...

who was best known for his translation work in classical Chinese and Japanese literature. For Keene, Waley's translation of Chinese and Japanese literature was inspiring, even arousing in Keene the thought of becoming a second Waley.

Career

Keene was a Japanologist who published about 25 books in English on Japanese topics, including both studies of Japanese literature and culture and translations of Japanese classical and modern literature, including a four-volume history of Japanese literature which has become a standard work."Lunch with the FT: Donald Keene"
by David Pilling, ''

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...

'', October 28, 2011.
Archive link
Keene also published about 30 books in Japanese, some of which have been translated from English. He was president of the Donald Keene Foundation for Japanese Culture. Keene was awarded the Order of Culture by the Japanese government in 2008, one of the highest honors bestowed by the Imperial Family in the country, becoming the first non-Japanese to receive the award. Soon after the

, Keene retired from Columbia and moved to Japan with the intention of living out the remainder of his life there. He acquired Japanese citizenship, adopting the legal name . This required him to relinquish his American citizenship, as Japan does not permit

dual citizenship Multiple/dual citizenship (or multiple/dual nationality) is a legal status in which a person is concurrently regarded as a national or citizen of more than one country under the laws of those countries. Conceptually, citizenship is focused on ...

. Keene was well known and respected in Japan and his relocation there following the earthquake was widely lauded.

Personal life

In 2013 Keene

adopted Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting of another, usually a child, from that person's biological or legal parent or parents. Legal adoptions permanently transfer all rights and responsibilities, along with filiation, from ...

shamisen The , also known as the or (all meaning "three strings"), is a three-stringed traditional Japanese musical instrument derived from the Chinese instrument . It is played with a plectrum called a bachi. The Japanese pronunciation is usua ...

player Seiki Uehara as a son. Keene was not married. Keene died of cardiac arrest in Tokyo on February 24, 2019, aged 96.

Selected works

In an overview of writings by and about Keene,

OCLC OCLC, Inc., doing business as OCLC, See also: is an American nonprofit cooperative organization "that provides shared technology services, original research, and community programs for its membership and the library community at large". It wa ...

WorldCat WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the O ...

lists roughly 600+ works in 1,400+ publications in 16 languages and 39,000+ library holdings. :''These lists are not finished; you can help Wikipedia by adding to them.''

Works in English

Works in Japanese

Translations

Chikamatsu Monzaemon was a Japanese dramatist of jōruri, the form of puppet theater that later came to be known as bunraku, and the live-actor drama, kabuki. The ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' has written that he is "widely regarded as the greatest Japanese dramatis ...

, ''The Battles of

Coxinga Zheng Chenggong, Prince of Yanping (; 27 August 1624 – 23 June 1662), better known internationally as Koxinga (), was a Ming loyalist general who resisted the Qing conquest of China in the 17th century, fighting them on China's southeastern ...

: Chikamatsu's Puppet Play, Its Background and Importance'' (Taylor's Foreign Pr, 1951) * Dazai Osamu, '' No Longer Human'' (New Directions, 1958) *

, ''The Major Plays of Chikamatsu'' (Columbia University Press, June 1, 1961) Includes critical commentary * Yoshida Kenkō, ''Essays in Idleness: The Tsurezuregusa of Kenko'' (Columbia University Press, June 1, 1967) * Mishima Yukio, ''Five Modern Noh Plays'' – Including:

Madame de Sade ''Madame de Sade'' is a 1965 play written by Yukio Mishima. It was first published in English, translated by Donald Keene by Grove Press and is currently out of print. ''Madame de Sade'' is a historical fiction play written by Mishima Yukio an ...

(Tuttle, 1967) * '' Chushingura: The Treasury of Loyal Retainers, a Puppet Play'' (Columbia University Press, April 1, 1971) * Mishima Yukio, '' After the Banquet'' (Random House Inc, January 1, 1973) *

Abe Kobo Abe or ABE may refer to: People and fictional characters * Shinzo Abe (1954–2022), former Prime Minister of Japan * Abe (given name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or nickname * Abe (surname), a list of people an ...

''The man who turned into a stick: three related plays'' (Columbia University Press, 1975). Original text published by Tokyo University Press. * Dazai Osamu, ''

The Setting Sun is a Japanese novel by Osamu Dazai first published in 1947. The story centers on an aristocratic family in decline and crisis during the early years after World War II. Plot summary Twenty-nine year old Kazuko, her brother Naoji, and their w ...

'' (Tuttle, 1981) * ??, ''The tale of the shining Princess'' (Metropolitan Museum of Art and Viking Press, 1981) *

, ''Friends: a play'' (Tuttle, 1986) * Abe Kobo, ''Three Plays'' (Columbia University Press, February 1, 1997) *

Matsuo Bashō born then was the most famous poet of the Edo period in Japan. During his lifetime, Bashō was recognized for his works in the collaborative '' haikai no renga'' form; today, after centuries of commentary, he is recognized as the greatest ma ...

, '' The Narrow Road to Oku'' (Kodansha Amer Inc, April 1, 1997) *

Kawabata Yasunari was a Japanese novelist and short story writer whose spare, lyrical, subtly shaded prose works won him the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1968, the first Japanese author to receive the award. His works have enjoyed broad international appeal ...

, ''The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter'' (Kodansha Amer Inc, September 1, 1998) * Yamamoto Yuzo, ''One Hundred Sacks of Rice: A Stage Play'' (Nagaoka City Kome Hyappyo Foundation, 1998) * Miyata Masayuki (illustrations), Donald Keene (essay), H. Mack Horton n trans 源氏物語 – '' The Tale of Genji'' (Kodansha International, 2001). Bilingual illustrated text with essay. * Donald Keene & Oda Makoto, ''The Breaking Jewel'', Keene, Donald (trans) (Columbia University Press, March 1, 2003)

Editor

* ''Anthology of Japanese Literature from the Earliest Era to the Mid-Nineteenth Century'' (Grove Pr, March 1, 1960) * ''The Old Woman, the Wife, and the Archer: Three Modern Japanese Short Novels'' (Viking Press, 1961) * ''Anthology of Chinese Literature: From the 14th Century to the Present Day'' (co-editor with Cyril Birch) (Grove Pr, June 1, 1987) * ''Love Songs from the Man'Yoshu'' (Kodansha Amer Inc, August 1, 2000) * ''Modern Japanese Literature from 1868 to the Present Day'' (Grove Pr, January 31, 1994)

Honorary degrees

Keene was awarded various honorary doctorates, from: *

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

(1978) * St. Andrews Presbyterian College (

North Carolina North Carolina () is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 28th largest and List of states and territories of the United ...

, 1990) *

Middlebury College Middlebury College is a private liberal arts college in Middlebury, Vermont. Founded in 1800 by Congregationalists, Middlebury was the first operating college or university in Vermont. The college currently enrolls 2,858 undergraduates from all 5 ...

(

Vermont Vermont () is a U.S. state, state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York (state), New York to the west, and the Provin ...

, 1995) * Columbia University (New York, 1997) *

Tohoku University , or is a Japanese national university located in Sendai, Miyagi in the Tōhoku Region, Japan. It is informally referred to as . Established in 1907, it was the third Imperial University in Japan and among the first three Designated Natio ...

(

Sendai is the capital city of Miyagi Prefecture, the largest city in the Tōhoku region. , the city had a population of 1,091,407 in 525,828 households, and is one of Japan's 20 designated cities. The city was founded in 1600 by the ''daimyō'' Date M ...

, 1997) *

Waseda University , mottoeng = Independence of scholarship , established = 21 October 1882 , type = Private , endowment = , president = Aiji Tanaka , city = Shinjuku , state = Tokyo , country = Japan , students = 47,959 , undergrad = 39,382 , postgrad ...

(Tokyo, 1998) *

Tokyo University of Foreign Studies , often referred to as TUFS, is a specialist research university in Fuchū, Tokyo, Japan. TUFS is primarily devoted to foreign language, international affairs and foreign studies. It also features an Asia-African institution. History The ...

(Tokyo, 1999) * Keiwa College ( Niigata, 2000) *

Kyoto Sangyo University is a private university in Kyoto, Japan. History The university was established in 1965. The founder was Toshima Araki (, 1897–1978), and Hideo Iwakuro (岩畔豪雄 Iwakuro Hideo, 10 October 1897 – 22 November 1970), the Japanese spy ...

(

Kyoto Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the c ...

, 2002) * Kyorin University (Tokyo, 2007) *

Toyo University is a university with several branches in Japan, including Hakusan, Asaka, Kawagoe, Itakura, and Akabane. Overview The predecessor to Toyo University was , which was founded at Rinsho-in Temple by Enryo Inoue in 1887. Inoue felt that the ...

(Tokyo, 2011) * Japan Women's University (Tokyo, 2012) *

Nishogakusha University is a private university in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, w ...

(Kyoto, 2012) * Doshisha University (Kyoto, 2013)

Awards and commendations

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the art ...

, 1961 * Kikuchi Kan Prize (Kikuchi Kan Shō Society for the Advancement of Japanese Culture), 1962. * Van Ameringen Distinguished Book Award, 1967 * Kokusai Shuppan Bunka Shō Taishō, 1969 * Kokusai Shuppan Bunka Shō, 1971 * Yamagata Banto Prize (Yamagata Bantō Shō), 1983 * The Japan Foundation Award (Kokusai Kōryū Kikin Shō), 1983 *

Yomiuri Literary Prize The is a literary award in Japan. The prize was founded in 1949 by the Yomiuri Shinbun Company to help form a "strong cultural nation". The winner is awarded two million Japanese yen and an inkstone. Award categories For the first two years, ...

(Yomiuri Bungaku Shō), 1985 (Keene was the first non-Japanese to receive this prize, for a book of

literary criticism Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. ...

(''Travellers of a Hundred Ages'') in Japanese) * Award for Excellence (Graduate Faculties Alumni of Columbia University), 1985 * Nihon Bungaku Taishō, 1985 * Donald Keene Center of Japanese Culture at Columbia University named in Keene's honour, 1986 * Tōkyō-to Bunka Shō, 1987 * NBCC (The National Book Critics Circle) Ivan Sandrof Award for Lifetime Achievement in Publishing, 1990 * The Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize (Fukuoka Ajia Bunka Shō), 1991 * Nihon Hōsō Kyōkai (NHK) Hōsō Bunka Shō, 1993 * Inoue Yasushi Bunka Shō (Inoue Yasushi Kinen Bunka Zaidan), 1995 * The Distinguished Achievement Award (from The Tokyo American Club) (for the lifetime achievements and unique contribution to international relations), 1995 * Award of Honor (from The Japan Society of Northern California), 1996 *

Asahi Prize The , established in 1929, is an award presented by the Japanese newspaper ''Asahi Shimbun'' and Asahi Shimbun Foundation to honor individuals and groups that have made outstanding accomplishments in the fields of arts and academics and have greatl ...

, 1997 * Mainichi Shuppan Bunka Shō (The Mainichi Newspapers), 2002 * The

PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation The PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation, named in honor of U.S. translator Ralph Manheim, is a literary award given every three years by PEN America (the U.S. chapter of International PEN) to a translator "whose career has demonstrated a commit ...

, 2003 * Ango Award (from Niigata, Niigata), 2010

National honors and decorations

Decorations

( Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon, Third Class, 1975) * JPN Kyokujitsu-sho 2Class BAR

( Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star, Second Class, 1993) * JPN Bunka-kunsho blank BAR

( Order of Culture (''Bunka kunshō''), 2008 "Donald Keene, 7 others win Order of Culture,"
''Yomiuri Shimbun.'' October 29, 2008. )

Honors

Person of Cultural Merit is an official Japanese recognition and honor which is awarded annually to select people who have made outstanding cultural contributions. This distinction is intended to play a role as a part of a system of support measures for the promotion of ...

(''Bunka Kōrōsha'') (Japanese Government), 2002 (Keene was the third non-Japanese person to be designated "an individual of distinguished cultural service" by the Japanese government) * Freedom of (''meiyo kumin'') Kita ward, Tokyo, 2006

Notes

References

External links

Donald Keene Center of Japanese Culture
{{DEFAULTSORT:Keene, Donald 1922 births 2019 deaths Military personnel from New York City Writers from New York City Columbia College (New York) alumni Columbia University faculty Harvard University alumni Alumni of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge Fellows of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge American emigrants to Japan American Japanologists Japanese–English translators Japanese literature academics Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters Naturalized citizens of Japan Former United States citizens American translators Recipients of the Order of the Rising Sun, 2nd class Recipients of the Order of Culture Yukio Mishima 20th-century Japanese male writers 20th-century translators United States Navy personnel of World War II United States Navy officers James Madison High School (Brooklyn) alumni