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Donald Keene

Donald Lawrence Keene (June 18, 1922 – February 24, 2019) was an American-born Japanese scholar, historian, teacher, writer and translator of Japanese literature.[1][2] Keene was University Professor emeritus and Shincho Professor Emeritus of Japanese Literature at Columbia University, where he taught for over fifty years. Soon after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, he retired from Columbia, moved to Japan permanently, and acquired citizenship under the name Kīn Donarudo (キーン ドナルド, "Donald Keene" in the Japanese name order).[3] This was also his poetic pen name (雅号, gagō) and occasional nickname, spelled in the ateji form 鬼怒鳴門.[4][a]

Early life and education

Keene was born in 1922 in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, New York City and attended James Madison High School.[5] He received a Bachelor's degree from Columbia University in 1942[6] and studied under Mark Van Doren, Moses Hadas, Lionel Trilling, and Jacques Barzun.[6] He then studied the Japanese language at the United States Navy Japanese Language School in Boulder, Colorado and in Berkeley, California,[7] and served as an intelligence officer in the Pacific region during World War II.[3] Upon his discharge from the US Navy, he returned to Columbia where he earned a master's degree in 1947.

Keene studied for a year at Harvard University before transferring to Cambridge University 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.[8] In the interim, in 1953,[9] he also studied at Kyoto University, and earned a PhD from Columbia in 1949. Keene credits Ryūsaku Tsunoda as a mentor during this period.[10]

While staying at Cambridge, Keene went to meet Arthur Waley 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.[11]

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.[12] 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.[13] Soon after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, 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 Kīn Donarudo (キーン ドナルド). This required him to relinquish his American citizenship, as Japan does not permit dual citizenship.[3]

Keene was well known and respected in Japan[14] and his relocation there following the earthquake was widely lauded.[12]

Personal life

In 2013 Keene adopted shamisen player Seiki Uehara as a son.[15] Keene was not married.

Keene died of cardiac arrest in Tokyo on February 24, 2019, aged 96.[16]

Selected works

In an overview of writings by and about Keene, OCLC/WorldCat lists roughly 600+ works in 1,400+ publications in 16 languages and 39,000+ library holdings.[17]

These lists are not finished; you can help Wikipedia by adding to them.

Works in English

Works in Japanese

Translations

Includes critical commentary

Editor

Honorary degrees

Keene was awarded various honorary doctorates, from:

Awards and commendations

National honors and decorations

Decorations

Honors

Notes

  1. ^ Glossed as 鬼怒（キーン・ド）鳴門（ナルド） or kīn do narudo; 鬼怒 is usually pronounced kinu, as in Kinugawa River, and 鳴門 as naruto, as in the Naruto Strait, which are both well-known place names, yielding the reading kinu naruto. A further twist is that 怒 can also be read as do, corresponding to the Do- in Donald.

References

  1. ^ Shavit, David (1990). The United States in Asia: A Historical Dictionary. Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 9780313267888.
  2. ^ "Japanese literature scholar Donald Keene dies at 96". The Japan Times. Tokyo. February 24, 2019. Retrieved February 24, 2019.
  3. ^ a b c Fackler, Martin (November 2, 2012). "Lifelong Scholar of the Japanese Becomes One of Them". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 10, 2014.
  4. ^ "年譜 | プロフィール | ドナルド・キーンについて | ドナルド・キーン・センター柏崎". www.donaldkeenecenter.jp. Retrieved February 5, 2021.
  5. ^ Kilgannon, Corey (April 26, 2011). "Columbia Professor's Retirement Is Big News in Japan". City Room. Retrieved October 21, 2022.
  6. ^ a b "Sensei and Sensibility | Columbia College Today". www.college.columbia.edu. Retrieved June 7, 2022.
  7. ^ Cary, Otis and Donald Keene. War-wasted Asia: Letters, 1945–46. Kodansha International, 1975. ISBN 9780870112577 p13
  8. ^ Donald Keene, 'Reminiscences of Cambridge', in Richard Bowring (ed.), Fifty years of Japanese at Cambridge, 1948–98: A Chronicle with Reminiscences (Cambridge: Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Cambridge, 1998), pp.16-7.
  9. ^ Donald Keene. "Donald Keene reflects on 70-year Japan experience" Japan Times. January 1, 2015
  10. ^ Arita, Eriko. "Keene: A life lived true to the words," Archived November 1, 2012, at the Wayback Machine Japan Times. September 6, 2009; retrieved November 18, 2012.
  11. ^ Keene, Donald (2008). Chronicles of My Life: An American in the Heart of Japan. Columbia University Press. p. 71. ISBN 978-0-231-14441-4. I too had studied Chinese along with Japanese and hoped to become the second Waley.
  12. ^ a b "Lunch with the FT: Donald Keene", by David Pilling, Financial Times, October 28, 2011. (Archive link)
  13. ^ "U.S.-born scholar of Japanese literature Donald Keene dies at 96". Reuters. February 24, 2019. Retrieved October 21, 2022. Keene, who befriended giants of Japanese literature such as Yukio Mishima and Yasunari Kawabata, was awarded the Order of Culture in March 2008, the first non-Japanese to receive it, and became a Japanese citizen in 2012.
  14. ^ "Famed Japan scholar Donald Keene dies at 96". Kyodo News. February 24, 2019. Retrieved March 4, 2019.
  15. ^ "Keene adopts shamisen player as son". The Japan Times. May 2013. Retrieved July 9, 2018.
  16. ^ Reiji Yoshida. "Donald Keene, lauded scholar of Japanese literature, dies at 96", Japan Times. February 24, 2019
  17. ^ WorldCat Identities Archived December 30, 2010, at the Wayback Machine: Keene, Donald; retrieved November 1, 2012.
  18. ^ "Professor Gets Prize; Keene of Columbia Cited for Work in Japanese Letters," New York Times. March 5, 1962.
  19. ^ "Donald Keene, 7 others win Order of Culture," Yomiuri Shimbun. October 29, 2008. [dead link]

External links