Tag - donald-keene

 
 

DONALD KEENE

Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Jul 16, 2023
Japan’s Nero? The shogun who dabbled in art while Kyoto burned
As Kyoto tore itself apart, Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa busied himself with art in his sanctuary. His indifference may have birthed today's Japan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jul 21, 2022
Independent publisher gives short stories their due with 'Storybook ND' series
New Directions spotlights short fiction with a new translated series featuring Yoko Tawada and Osamu Dazai.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Mar 16, 2019
Culture bred in the midst of famine and war
'We may even be tempted to conclude that no man in the history of Japan had a greater influence on the formation of Japanese taste,' wrote Japanologist Donald Keene. But still, he continues, 'Yoshimasa may have been the worst shogun ever to rule Japan.'
Japan Times
JAPAN / History
Feb 26, 2019
Writers recall their initiation to Japanese literature via Donald Keene
The Japan Times asked author Suzanne Kamata to reach out to some of her fellow writers for their memories and thoughts about Donald Keene, the noted scholar of Japanese literature who died Sunday in Tokyo at age 96. Here is a short collection of their replies.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 24, 2019
Donald Keene, lauded scholar of Japanese literature, dies at 96
Prominent U.S.-born Japanese literature scholar Donald Keene, who introduced a roster of talented writers from Japan to the world, died of cardiac arrest in Tokyo on Sunday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Nov 25, 2017
'The Paper Door and Other Stories': Naoya Shiga's rollercoaster ride of human emotions
Considered a master of the Japanese short story, Naoya Shiga's "The Paper Door and Other Stories" truly impresses. Seventeen stories explore a vast range of human emotions, from fever-induced insanity in "The Razor" to the analytical musings of a circus performer whose stunt has just gone horribly wrong in "Han's Crime."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Oct 7, 2017
'Chronicles of My Life: An American in the Heart of Japan': Donald Keene's memoir is not to be missed
For insight into the heart of Japan, pick up Donald Keene's memoir, "Chronicles of My Life."
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Nov 19, 2016
Vileness is a quality more repugnant than evil
There is a kind of moral ugliness that, without being quite evil, may be even more repellant than evil because evil — genuine evil — has, sometimes, a certain romantic appeal. You can admire the villain's strength, or courage, or dash, or reckless defiance of that which we all, sometimes, wish we could defy — the smug, complacent society that bears down on the individual with all its stifling weight and ruthless indifference.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Oct 15, 2016
'The First Modern Japanese': Donald Keene pays tribute to poet Takuboku Ishikawa
In "The First Modern Japanese," Donald Keene pays tribute to Japanese poet Takuboku Ishikawa (1886-1912), who he calls "an extraordinary man, at times shameless but always absorbing and, in the end, difficult to forget." Though I'll take his poetry gladly, I struggle to revere this shameless man.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Sep 12, 2015
Jesus Christ, the Nobel Prize and Shusaku Endo
In 1994, on the day when Kenzaburo Oe was announced as the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature — the second Japanese writer to receive the award — eminent literary scholar Donald Keene received a long-distance call from Peter Owen, publisher of novelist Shusaku Endo's works in London, demanding to know why the Swedish judges had not given the prize to Endo instead.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Aug 29, 2015
Mishima, Murakami and the elusive Nobel Prize
Will he or won't he? It's about the time of year when the Japanese media descends into a frenzy of speculation about whether Haruki Murakami will land the Nobel Prize in literature, becoming the first Japanese literary laureate since Kenzaburo Oe in 1994.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 12, 2015
Local interaction key to U.S.-Japan cultural exchanges, experts say
Local interaction and nurturing personnel suitable to such efforts is the key to the future of grass-roots exchanges between Japan and the United States, experts in bilateral cultural relations said Friday at a Tokyo symposium.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History
Jan 1, 2015
Donald Keene reflects on 70-year Japan experience
My first visit to Japan was very short, only a week or so in December 1945. Three months earlier, while on the island of Guam, I had heard the broadcast by the Emperor announcing the end of the war. Soon afterward, I was sent from Guam to China to serve as an interpreter between the Americans and the Japanese military and civilians.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Oct 25, 2014
No Longer Human
Osamu Dazai's "No Longer Human" comprises a series of three fictionalized notebooks, with each increasingly darker than the last. The character writing these books, Yozo, is detached from the beginning and is afraid of human interactions, but he learns how to socialize with people by playing the clown and entertaining his way into favor from a young age. Yet his alienation remains, despite how he may appear from the outside.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Aug 9, 2014
Bryerly Long: 'I'm still learning to accept the unknown'
'Sometimes people take themselves too seriously and, in reality, we invent our own characters. Who we are changes with time.'
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 21, 2013
Museum honoring Japan scholar Keene to open doors
A new museum built in honor of Donald Keene, a prominent U.S.-born scholar of Japanese literature, was opened to reporters Friday in Kashiwazaki, Niigata Prefecture, prior to its public unveiling Saturday.
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Jul 27, 2013
What if Columbus had reached his goal, Japan?
Every school child knows that in 1492 Christopher Columbus discovered America. Every school child knows wrongly. When the Genovese explorer's three ships sailed westward from Palo de la Frontera, Spain, on Aug. 2, 1492, he was bound, he thought, for "the noble island of Cipangu" — Japan.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 1, 2013
Keene adopts shamisen player as son
Prominent Japanologist Donald Keene has adopted shamisen player Seiki Uehara, 62, as his son, the aging scholar reveals in a talk in Niigata.
JAPAN
Mar 9, 2012
Scholar Keene granted citizenship
Prominent literature scholar and Japan expert Donald Keene has been granted Japanese citizenship, according to the government gazette issued Thursday.
JAPAN
Apr 17, 2011
U.S. scholar Donald Keene on path to Japanese citizenship
Donald Keene, a prominent scholar of Japanese literature at Columbia University, has decided to move permanently to Japan after he delivers his final lecture at the university later this month, sources close to him have said.

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