Japanese Literature: An Introduction for Western Readers
Best concise entry point to Keene's approach to Japanese literature and its major traditions.
Author guide
Donald Keene Books in Order
Donald Lawrence Keene (1922–2019) was a Columbia University professor and Japanologist whose scholarship, literary histories, biographies, memoirs, essays, anthologies, and translations introduced Japanese literature to generations of English-language readers. His major achievements include A History of Japanese Literature, studies of Chikamatsu, Noh and bunraku, biographies of Emperor Meiji, Ashikaga Yoshimasa, Watanabe Kazan, Masaoka Shiki, and Ishikawa Takuboku, and autobiographical works about his lifelong engagement with Japan. He became a Japanese citizen in 2012 and was the first non-Japanese recipient of Japan’s Order of Culture.
japanese literatureliterary criticismcultural historytheaterbiographymemoirtravel writingessaysanthologytranslation
Catalog record updated .
Not sure where to begin?
Start with one of these
Seeds in the Heart: Japanese Literature from Earliest Times to the Late Sixteenth Century
Beginning of his comprehensive history of Japanese literature and the natural starting point for the series.
Chronicles of My Life: An American in the Heart of Japan
Accessible memoir explaining Keene's intellectual development and lifelong relationship with Japan.
Read in order
Books by series
scholarly history · complete
A History of Japanese Literature
Donald Keene’s four-volume history of Japanese literature from its earliest beginnings through the modern era.
- 1 Seeds in the Heart: Japanese Literature from Earliest Times to the Late Sixteenth Century
Book 1 · literary history · 1993
- 2 World Within Walls: Japanese Literature of the Pre-Modern Era, 1600–1867
Book 2 · literary history · 1976
- 3 Dawn to the West: Japanese Literature of the Modern Era: Fiction
Book 3 · literary history · 1984
- 4 Dawn to the West: Japanese Literature in the Modern Era: Poetry, Drama, Criticism
Book 4 · literary history · 1984
Outside the series
Bibliography by category
Nonfiction (17)
- Japanese Literature: An Introduction for Western Readers
literary criticism · 1955
- Travels in Japan
travel writing · 1981
- The Pleasures of Japanese Literature
literary criticism · 1988
Perhaps no one is more qualified to write about Japanese culture than Donald Keene, considered the leading interpreter of that nation's literature to the Western world. The author, editor, or translator of nearly three dozen books of…
- Introducing Kyoto
travel and cultural studies · 1989
- Travelers of a Hundred Ages: The Japanese as Revealed Through 1,000 Years of Diaries
literary criticism · 1989
- Modern Japanese Novels and the West
literary criticism · 1989
- On Familiar Terms: A Journey Across Cultures
memoir · 1994
- Modern Japanese Diaries: The Japanese at Home and Abroad as Revealed Through Their Diaries
literary criticism · 1995
- Living in Two Countries
memoir · 1999
- Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, 1852–1912
biography · 2002
"When Emperor Meiji began his rule, in 1867, Japan was a splintered empire, dominated by the shogun and the daimyos, who ruled over the country's more than 250 decentralized domains and who were, in the main, cut off from the outside…
- Five Modern Japanese Novelists
literary criticism · 2002
- Yoshimasa and the Silver Pavilion: The Creation of the Soul of Japan
biography · 2003
- Frog in the Well: Portraits of Japan by Watanabe Kazan, 1793–1841
biography · 2006
- Chronicles of My Life: An American in the Heart of Japan
memoir · 2008
- The Winter Sun Shines In: A Life of Masaoka Shiki
biography · 2013
- The First Modern Japanese: The Life of Ishikawa Takuboku
biography · 2016
Essays and speeches (3)
- Landscapes and Portraits: Appreciations of Japanese Culture
essay collection · 1978
- Some Japanese Portraits
essay collection · 1978
- Appreciations of Japanese Culture
essay collection · 1991
Poetry (1)
- The Colors of Poetry: Essays in Classic Japanese Verse
poetry criticism · 1991
Plays (2)
- Bunraku: The Art of the Japanese Puppet Theatre
theater and art · 1965
- No and Bunraku: Two Forms of Japanese Theatre
theater studies · 1990
Edited works (8)
- Anthology of Japanese Literature from the Earliest Era to the Mid-Nineteenth Century
edited anthology · 1955
This extensive anthology includes excerpts from plays and novels plus stories, fairy tales, and many poems.
- Modern Japanese Literature: An Anthology
edited anthology · 1956
- Major Plays of Chikamatsu
drama anthology · 1961
- Four Major Plays of Chikamatsu
drama anthology · 1961
Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653-1725) wrote some 130 plays, chiefly for the puppet theater, many of which are still performed today by puppet operators and Kabuki actors. Chikamatsu is thought to have written the first major tragedies about…
- The Old Woman, the Wife, and the Archer: Three Modern Japanese Short Novels
edited collection · 1961
- Twenty Plays of the Noh Theatre
drama anthology · 1970
- Love Songs from the Man'yoshu
poetry anthology · 2000
- Sources of Japanese Tradition: From Earliest Times to 1600
edited anthology · 2001
Other (5)
- The Battles of Coxinga: Chikamatsu's Puppet Play, Its Background and Importance
scholarly study · 1951
- Living Japan
cultural studies · 1959
- Meeting with Japan
cultural studies · 1979
Frequently asked questions about Donald Keene
Who was Donald Keene?
Donald Keene was an American-born scholar, translator, writer, and Columbia University professor who became one of the leading international interpreters of Japanese literature and culture. He taught at Columbia from 1955 and produced major scholarship and translations.
Sources: ealac.columbia.edu (opens in a new tab)magazine.columbia.edu (opens in a new tab)
Was Donald Keene American or Japanese?
Keene was born in Brooklyn, New York, and was educated at Columbia University. He became a Japanese citizen in 2012 after deciding to move permanently to Japan.
Sources: college.columbia.edu (opens in a new tab)donaldkeenecenter.jp (opens in a new tab)
What inspired Donald Keene to study Japanese literature?
In 1940, he encountered Japanese literature through Arthur Waley’s translation of The Tale of Genji, which deeply impressed him. His wartime service at the U.S. Navy Japanese Language School then gave him intensive Japanese training and led him toward a lifelong career in Japanese studies.
Sources: magazine.columbia.edu (opens in a new tab)donaldkeenecenter.jp (opens in a new tab)
What awards and honors did Donald Keene receive?
Among his many honors were Japan’s Order of Culture in 2008, the first Westerner to receive it, and the Order of the Rising Sun. He also received the Japan Foundation Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Ivan Sandorf Award, and the Inoue Yasushi Prize.
Sources: news.columbia.edu (opens in a new tab)ealac.columbia.edu (opens in a new tab)
What is Donald Keene’s legacy?
Keene helped bring Japanese literature to Western audiences through influential scholarship, translations, and teaching. His legacy continues through institutions such as Columbia’s Donald Keene Center of Japanese Culture and the Donald Keene Center Kashiwazaki, which preserve and promote Japanese literary and cultural studies.
Sources: magazine.columbia.edu (opens in a new tab)donaldkeenecenter.jp (opens in a new tab)donaldkeene.org (opens in a new tab)