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."
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 ...
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.
'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 ...
For insight into the heart of Japan, pick up Donald Keene's memoir, "Chronicles of My Life." Chronicles of My Life: An American in the Heart of Japan, by Donald Keene.183 pages COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS, Memoir. The 95-year-old professor emeritus of Japanese Literature at Columbia University published it ...
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 ...
'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 ...
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 ...
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. There is ...
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. The aim of the symposium organized by the nonprofit America-Japan ...
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 ...
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 ...
