Donald Keene

 ( 1922 Births ) 

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

He was 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) which is essentially his birth name in the Japanese name This was also his poetic gagō and occasional nickname, spelled in the ateji form 鬼怒鳴門.

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Early life Donald Lawrence Keene was born in the Flatbush neighborhood of New York City's Brooklyn borough on June 18, 1922. His father was an international trade businessman while his mother stayed at home to raise Keene and his elder sister. In July 1931, amid the economic crisis of the Great Depression, a nine-year-old Keene begged his father to allow him to accompany him on a business trip to Europe, to which his father agreed. He and his father boarded a United States Lines ship sailing to Normandy, disembarking at Cherbourg before they continued on to Paris by train. Keene met a girl around his age in Paris, but the language barrier made it difficult to talk with her, so he proceeded to sing Frère Jacques to her as it was the only thing he knew in French.

Donald Keene (2026). 9780231144414, Columbia University Press. ISBN 9780231144414

These experiences instilled in him a great sense of curiosity for cultures abroad, as well as learning languages. In 1933, his elder sister died of an illness and his parents divorced.

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Education and military service Keene lived with his mother and attended James Madison High School, showing great academic achievement. He then enrolled at Columbia University, where he received a bachelor's degree 1942, studying under Mark Van Doren, Moses Hadas, Lionel Trilling, and Jacques Barzun. While there, he was obsessed with Arthur Waley's English translation of The Tale of Genji, and he became increasingly interested in Japanese culture after he met Ryūsaku Tsunoda, who became a mentor and key influence on his writings. Following his graduation, Keene enlisted in the United States Navy under the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940. A self-described Pacifism, he was not enthusiastic about joining, especially after hearing about the attack on Pearl Harbor.

While in the Navy, Keene successfully applied to the in Boulder, Colorado, and in Berkeley, California,Cary, Otis and Donald Keene. War-wasted Asia: Letters, 1945–46. Kodansha International, 1975. p13 where he learned Japanese. He served as an intelligence officer and in the Pacific region during World War II, where he translated for Japanese prisoners, some of whom remained his friends long after the war finished; he later recalled finding poignant diaries of dead Japanese soldiers, stained with their blood, and having his attempts to deliver the diaries to the soldiers' families thwarted by the Navy. Upon his discharge from the Navy, he returned to Columbia and earned a master's degree in 1947. He studied for a year at Harvard University before transferring to Cambridge University in England on the Henry Fellowship, where he earned a second master's degree and became a Fellow of Cambridge's Corpus Christi College from 1948 to 1954, as well as a lecturer from 1949 to 1955.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. In the interim, he earned a PhD from Columbia in 1949 and studied at Kyoto University in 1953.Donald Keene. "Donald Keene reflects on 70-year Japan experience" Japan Times. January 1, 2015 While staying at Cambridge, he met his idol Waley, who had sparked his initial interest in Asian culture.

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Career Keene went on to become a Japanology who published about 25 English-language books on Japanese topics, including studies of Japanese literature and culture and translations of classical and modern Japanese literature. "Lunch with the FT: Donald Keene", by David Pilling, Financial Times, October 28, 2011. ( Archive link) He 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.

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Personal life In 2008, Akihito awarded Keene the Order of Culture, one of the highest honors bestowed by the Japanese Imperial House; as of 2025, he remains the only non-Japanese person to receive the award.

In January 2011, at the age of 87, Keene was taken to a Japanese hospital after becoming gravely ill; concerned that he was dying, he instead asked himself what he would do if he recovered, and quickly realized that he would rather live out the rest of his life in Japan than return to the U.S. The Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami struck Japan two months later; Keene soon announced that he would retire from Columbia University, leave his home in Morningside Heights, and settle in Japan. He was already known and respected in Japan by this point, and his relocation following the earthquake was universally welcomed.

According to the Financial Times, which referred to Keene as a legendary figure in Japan, "The announcement made headline news. Japanese spoke, many with tears in their eyes, of the courage he had given them in their hour of need." He told The New York Times, "Many foreigners are leaving Japan. People have asked me why I should be choosing this moment to spend the rest of my life in Japan. ... I decided to move there to voluntarily and gladly join the people in time of disaster, because I have more friends there than I have here, and most of my awards have come there. I want to show my appreciation to the Japanese people, and I could think of no other way than to say I'd be with them."

Upon settling in Japan, Keene adopted the legal name Kīn Donarudo and acquired Japanese citizenship, which required him to relinquish his American citizenship as Japan does not permit multiple citizenship. Having long maintained a home in a suburb of Tokyo, he made it his primary home upon relocating. He never married and had no biological children. In 2012, at the age of 89, he utilized Japan's adult adoption process to adopt professional shamisen /ref>

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Death Keene died of cardiac arrest in Tokyo at the age of 96 on February 24, 2019.Reiji Yoshida. "Donald Keene, lauded scholar of Japanese literature, dies at 96", Japan Times. February 24, 2019

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Selected works In an overview of writings by and about Keene, OCLC/WorldCat lists over 600 works in over 1,400 publications in 16 languages and over 39,000 library holdings. Keene, Donald

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Works in English

Japanese trans.: 日本人の西洋発見 (錦正社, 1957), trans. 藤田豊 & 大沼雅彦; nihonjin no seiyou hakken; 日本人の西洋発見 (中公叢書, 1968), trans. 芳賀徹 ?trans

Japanese trans.: 生きている日本 (朝日出版社, 1973), trans. 江藤淳 & 足立康; ikiteiru nihon; Revised edition: 果てしなく美しい日本 (講談社学術文庫, 2002), trans. 足立康改 ?mistake.

With Kaneko Hiroshi (photography) & Jun'ichirō Tanizaki (introduction); Japanese trans.: 文楽 (講談社, 1966), trans. 吉田健一; bunraku

Revised/2nd edition

Japanese trans.: 昨日の戦地から (中央公論新社, 2006), trans. 松宮史朗; kinou no senchi kara

Second book in "A History of Japanese Literature" series; Japanese trans.: 日本文学史 近世篇, 2 vols. (中央公論社, 1976–77), trans. 徳岡孝夫; nihon bungakushi kinseihen

Japanese trans.: 日本文学散歩 (朝日選書, 1975), trans. 篠田一士; nihon bungaku sanpo

Japanese trans.: 日本との出会い (中央公論社, 1972), trans. 篠田一士; nihon tono deai

Japanese trans.: 日本細見 (中央公論社, 1980), trans. 中矢一義; nihonsaiken

Third book in "A History of Japanese Literature" series

Fourth book in "A History of Japanese Literature" series

; Japanese trans.: 古典の愉しみ (JICC, 1992; 宝島社, 2000)

With Herbert E. Plutschow

Japanese trans.: 百代の過客 日記にみる日本人 (朝日選書, 1984 and 1988), trans. 金関寿夫; hyakudai no kakaku: nikkini miru nihonjin; Later published by Asahi, 2011 and 2012 ?trans

Japanese trans.: 能・文楽・歌舞伎 (講談社, 2001), trans. 吉田健一 & 松宮史朗; noh, bunraku, kabuki

With Ooka Makoto

First book in "A History of Japanese Literature" series

Reworking of 1990–1992 Japanese newspaper column; Japanese trans.: このひとすじにつながりて (朝日選書, 1993), trans. 金関寿夫; kono hitosuji ni tsunagarite

Later published by Columbia University Press, 1999 ?revised; Japanese edition published first

Editor: J. Thomas Rimer; Japanese trans.: 碧い眼の太郎冠者; aoi me no taroukaja

English and Japanese bilingual text, trans. 塩谷紘

With Anne Nishimura & Frederic A. Sharf

Compiled by Donald Keene, Wm. Theodore De Bary, George Tanabe and Paul Varley

Japanese trans.: 明治天皇 (新潮社, 2001), trans. 角地幸男; meiji tennou; Also published in 4 volumes, 2007

With Lee Bruschke-Johnson & Ann Yonemura

Japanese trans.: 思い出の作家たち―谷崎・川端・三島・安部・司馬 (新潮社, 2005), trans. 松宮史朗; omoide no sakkatachi: Tanizaki, Kawabata, Mishima, Abe, Shiba

Japanese trans.: 足利義政と銀閣寺 (中央公論新社, 2008), trans. 角地幸男; Yoshimasa to ginkakuji

Japanese trans.: 渡辺崋山 (新潮社, 2007), trans. 角地幸男; Watanabe Kazan

Japanese trans.: 私と20世紀のクロニカル (中央公論新社, 2007), trans. 角地幸男; watashi to 20 seiki no kuronikaru; Later published as ドナルド・キーン自伝 (中公公論新社, 2011); Spanish trans.: Un Occidental En Japon (Nocturna Ediciones, 2011), trans. José Pazó Espinosa

Japanese trans.: 日本人の戦争 作家の日記を読む (文藝春秋, 2009), trans. 角地幸男; nihonjin no sensou: sakka no nikki wo yomu

Japanese trans.: 正岡子規 (新潮社, 2012), trans. 角地幸男; Masaoka Shiki

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Works in Japanese

Column in Asahi Weekly

Trans. 吉田健一

In conversation with Ryotaro Shiba; republished 1992 as 世界のなかの日本

In conversation with Kobo Abe

In conversation with Ooka Shouhei

With Tokuoka Takao

Later published as わたしの好きなレコード

Collection of conversations

Trans. 中矢一義; republished 中央公論社 1992

Trans. 中矢一義

Column

Translation of "History of Japanese Literature" series; various volumes and editions

Trans. 塩谷紘

Column

Editor; 97 letters from Yukio Mishima

Based on lecture series

With Jakucho Setouchi & Shunsuke Tsurumi

Republished 2010

With Koike Masayuki

Complete works (15 volumes)

With Setouchi Jakuchou

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Translations

Includes critical commentary

Including Madame de Sade

Original text published by Tokyo University Press

Bilingual illustrated text with essay; with Miyata Masayuki (illustrations) & H. Mack Horton

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Editor

Co-editor with Cyril Birch

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Honorary degrees Keene was awarded various honorary doctorates, from:

• University of Cambridge (1978)
• St. Andrews Presbyterian College (North Carolina, 1990)
• Middlebury College (Vermont, 1995)
• Columbia University (New York, 1997)
• Tohoku University (Sendai, 1997)
• Waseda University (Tokyo, 1998)
• Tokyo University of Foreign Studies (Tokyo, 1999)
• Keiwa College (Niigata, 2000)
• Kyoto Sangyo University (Kyoto, 2002)
• Kyorin University (Tokyo, 2007)
• Toyo University (Tokyo, 2011)
• Japan Women's University (Tokyo, 2012)
• Nishogakusha University (Kyoto, 2012)
• Doshisha University (Kyoto, 2013)

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Awards and commendations

• Guggenheim Fellowship, 1961
• Kikuchi Kan Prize (Kikuchi Kan Shō Society for the Advancement of Japanese Culture), 1962. "Professor Gets Prize; Keene of Columbia Cited for Work in Japanese Letters," New York Times. March 5, 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 Prize (Yomiuri Bungaku Shō), 1985 (Keene was the first non-Japanese to receive this prize, for a book of literary criticism ( 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, 1997
• Mainichi Shuppan Bunka Shō (The Mainichi Newspapers), 2002
• The PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation, 2003
• Ango Award (from Niigata, Niigata), 2010

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National honors and decorations

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Decorations

• (Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon, Third Class, 1975)
• (Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star, Second Class, 1993)
• (Order of Culture ( Bunka kunshō), 2008 "Donald Keene, 7 others win Order of Culture," Yomiuri Shimbun. October 29, 2008. )

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Honors

• Person of Cultural Merit ( 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

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Notes

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External links

• Donald Keene Center of Japanese Culture

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