Edward Seidensticker 1921-2007

[Bernardi-Buralli]

I had a chance to be even further impressed by the accomplishments of  
Ed and his contemporaries when I happened upon a 1954 Funk &  
Wagnall's entry on Japan recently. The last sentence under "Japanese  
literature" pretty much astounded me, but in hindsight I realized  
that 1954 was still relatively early post-war (the copyright page  
suggested yearly updates since the war, but who knows what that  
meant), but even more than that, 1954 was too early for Ed's  
generation to have begun to made a mark on readers with their work.  
To paraphrase, the entry ended with something like "The reign of  
Hirohito has not produced any literature of significance"--pretty  
much just like that, a tidy (and ignorant but authoritative) blanket  
statement about Japanese literature 1925-1954.

Joanne Bernardi
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>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Alexander Jacoby [mailto:a_p_jacoby at yahoo.co.uk]
> Sent: Mon 8/27/07 8:23 PM
> To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
> Subject: Edward Seidensticker 1921-2007
>
> Although he was not directly related to the art of the cinema, I  
> think that everyone on this list should shed a tear at the passing  
> of the pre-eminent translator of Japanese literature. Western  
> appreciation and understanding of Mishima, Tanizaki, Kawabata and  
> indeed The Tale of Genji itself would have been much diminished  
> without his tireless work.
>
> ALEX
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