Donald Howard Shively (May 11, 1921 – August 13, 2005) was an American academic, historian,

Japanologist , sometimes known as Japanology in Europe, is a sub-field of area studies or East Asian studies involved in social sciences and humanities research on Japan. It incorporates fields such as the study of Japanese language, History of Japan, history, ...

, author and professor emeritus of East Asian Languages and Cultures at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

.Fox, Margalit
"Donald H. Shively, 84, Leader in Japanese Studies in the U.S., Dies,"
''New York Times.'' August 24, 2005. He was a leader of Japan studies in the United States.

Early life

Shively was the son of American missionaries in Japan. He was born in

Kyoto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...

and educated at the Canadian Academy in Japan.Maclay, Kathleen
"Professor emeritus Donald Shively, expert on Japanese life and cultures, dies,"
''UCBerkeley News.'' August 17, 2005. Years of study in the United States began when he entered Harvard in 1940, but his college years were interrupted by war. In

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Shively was a Japanese language officer. He was promoted to the rank of

major Major most commonly refers to: * Major (rank), a military rank * Academic major, an academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits * People named Major, including given names, surnames, nicknames * Major and minor in musi ...

in the

United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines or simply the Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is responsible for conducting expeditionar ...

, and his service was marked by the

Bronze Star Medal The Bronze Star Medal (BSM) is a Awards and decorations of the United States Armed Forces, United States Armed Forces decoration awarded to members of the United States Armed Forces for either heroic achievement, heroic service, meritorious a ...

. His training during WWII at Camp Ritchie's Military Intelligence Training Center classifies him as one of the Ritchie Boys. Shively received his bachelor's degree from

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

in 1946 (Class of '44). He continued his studies in Cambridge, and he earned a master's degree in 1947. He was awarded a Ph.D. in 1951.

Career

Shively began his teaching career at the University of California, Berkeley. He was at Berkeley from 1950 to 1962. During this period, he edited the '' Journal of Asian Studies'' (1955–1959). From 1962 through 1964, he was a member of the Stanford faculty. He then moved east to return to Harvard as a member of the faculty from 1964 to 1983. He was director of the Edwin O. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies from 1981 through 1983, and also editor of the ''

Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies The ''Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies'' (HJAS) is an English-language scholarly journal published by the Harvard-Yenching Institute. ''HJAS'' features articles and book reviews of current scholarship in East Asian studies, East Asian Studies, fo ...

'' from 1975 to 1983. In 1983, Shively returned to teach at Berkeley. He was also the head of the university's East Asian library until he retired in 1992. Dr. Shively died of Shy–Drager syndrome at the age of 84 in Oakland, California.

Selected works

Most notable among his works covering popular culture in the

Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

of Japan is the translation of '' The Love Suicides at Amijima'', a famous

kabuki is a classical form of Theatre of Japan, Japanese theatre, mixing dramatic performance with Japanese traditional dance, traditional dance. Kabuki theatre is known for its heavily stylised performances, its glamorous, highly decorated costumes ...

play written by Chikamatsu Monzaemon. In a statistical overview derived from writings by and about Donald Shively,

OCLC OCLC, Inc. 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 was founded in 1967 as the ...

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 ...

encompasses roughly 40+ works in 90+ publications in 3 languages and 3,000+ library holdings. WorldCat Identities

Shively, Donald H. (Donald Howard) 1921-
/ref> * ''The Love Suicide at Amijima: a study of a Japanese Domestic Tragedy by Chikamatsu Monzaemon'' (1953) * ''Personality in Japanese History'' (1970) with Albert Craig * ''Tradition and Modernization in Japanese Culture'' (1971) * ''The Cambridge History of Japan,'' Vol. 2, ''Heian Japan'' (1999)

Honors

Order of the Rising Sun The is a Japanese honors system, Japanese order, established in 1875 by Emperor Meiji. The Order was the first national decoration awarded by the Japanese government, created on 10 April 1875 by decree of the Council of State. The badge feat ...

, 1982.

Early life

Career

Selected works

Honors

Notes

Further reading