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Japan–U.S. Friendship Commission Prize for the Translation of Japanese Literature

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The Japan–U.S. Friendship Commission Prize for the Translation of Japanese Literature was established in 1979 and is administered by the Donald Keene Center of Japanese Culture at Columbia University. It is the oldest prize for Japanese literary translation in the United States.

Works entered into competition are judged on the literary merit of the translation and the accuracy with which it reflects the spirit of the Japanese original.

The Keene Center annually awards $6,000 (USD) in Japan–U.S. Friendship Commission Prizes for the Translation of Japanese Literature. A prize is given for the best translation of a modern work or a classical work, or the prize is divided between equally distinguished translations.[1]

List of winners[edit]

The following is a list of the winners:[2][3]

Year Winner(s) 1 Publisher 2 Notes
1979 Princeton University Press, Yuji Katydid Books The first prize ever given was a shared prize.
1980 Alfred A. Knopf
1981
  • Prof. Kären Wigen for A View by the Sea (海辺の光景, Kaihen no kōkei) by Shōtarō Yasuoka, a collection of short fiction including the titular novella
Columbia University Press
1982 Princeton University Press
1983
  • Prof. Phyllis Lyons for The Selected Works of Dazai Osamu by Osamu Dazai
Stanford University Press
1984 - - No prize was awarded
1985 North Point Press
1986 - - No prize was awarded
1987 University of Hawaiʻi Press
1988 Kodansha International
1989
  • Modern: Ms. Phyllis Birnbaum for Confessions of Love (色ざんげ, Iro zange) by Chiyo Uno
  • Classical: Prof. Steven Carter for Waiting for the Wind: 36 Poets of Japan's Late Medieval Period
University of Hawaiʻi Press, Columbia University Press
1990 Kodansha International, Stanford University Press
1991
  • Modern: Prof. Paul McCarthy for A Cat, A Man, and Two Women (猫と庄造と二人の女, Neko to Shōzō to futari no onna) by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki
  • Classical: Prof. Margaret Childs for Rethinking Sorrow: Revelatory Tales of Late Medieval Japan
Kodansha International, University of Michigan Center for Japanese Studies
1992
  • Modern: Ms. Eve Zimmerman for Strawberry Road by Ishikawa Yoshimi
  • Classical: Prof. Edwin Cranston for A Waka Anthology: The Gem-Glistening Cup. Vol I
Kodansha International, Stanford University Press
1993 - - No prize was awarded
1994
  • Modern: Mr. Wayne P. Lammers for Still Life and Other Stories (静物, Seibutsu) by Junzo Shono
  • Classical: Prof. H. Mack Horton for The Journal of Socho by Saiokuken Socho
Stone Bridge Press, Stanford University Press
1995 - - No prize was awarded
1996
  • Modern: Prof. John Solt Glass Beret for The Selected Poems of Kitasono Katsue (1902-78) by Katué Kitasono
  • Classical: Prof. Makoto Ueda for Modern Japanese Tanka
Morgan Press, Columbia University Press
1997 - - No prize was awarded
1998 University of Hawaiʻi Press, Columbia University Press
1999 Alfred A. Knopf, Columbia University Press
2000
  • Modern: Ms. Meredith McKinney for Ravine and Other Stories by Yoshikichi Furui
  • Classical: Prof. Roger K. Thomas for A Tale of False Fortunes (Namamiko Monogatari) by Fumiko Enchi
Stone Bridge Press, University of Hawai’i Press
2001
  • Modern: Prof. James Philip Gabriel for Life in the Cul-De-Sac (群棲, Gunsei) by Kuroi Senji
  • Classical: Prof. Mae J. Smethurst for Dramatic Representations of Filial Piety: Five Noh in Translation
Stone Bridge Press, Cornell University Press
2002 Viking Press
2003
  • Modern: Shogo Oketani and Leza Lowitz for America and Other Poems by Ayukawa Nobuo
  • Classical: Charles S. Inouye for Japanese Gothic Tales (Volume Two) by Kyōka Izumi
Kaya Press, University of Hawai’i Press
2004 University of California Press
2005
  • Modern: Prof. Yosei Sugawara The Gift of Numbers by Yōko Ogawa
  • Classical: Prof. Damian Flanagan for The Tower of London by Natsume Sōseki
Picador, Peter Owen Publishers
2006
  • Modern: Prof. Edward Fowler A Man with No Talents: Memoirs of a Tokyo Day Laborer by Ōyama Shirō
  • Classical: Prof. Joel Cohn for Botchan: A Modern Classic by Natsume Sōseki
Cornell University Press, Kodansha USA
2007
  • Modern: Prof. Kozue Uzawa and Ms. Amelia Fielden for Ferris Wheel: 101 Modern and Contemporary Tanka
  • Classical: Prof. Anthony H. Chambers for Tales of Moonlight and Rain (雨月物語, Ugetsu Monogatari) by Ueda Akinari
Cheng & Tsui, Columbia University Press
2008 Dalkey Archive Press
2009
  • Modern: Prof. Jeffrey M. Angles for Forest of Eyes: Selected Poems of Tada Chimako by Tada Chimako
  • Classical: Prof. Esperanza Ramirez-Christensen Murmured Conversations. A Treatise on Poetry and Buddhism by the Poet-Monk Shinkei by Shinkei
University of California Press, Stanford University Press
2010 Counterpoint, Cambridge University Press
2011
  • Matthew Fraleigh for New Chronicles of Yanagibashi and Diary of a Journey to the West: Narushima Ryūhoku Reports from Home and Abroad by Narushima Ryūhoku
  • J. Keith Vincent for A Riot of Goldfish (金魚撩乱, Kingyo ryōran) by Kanoko Okamoto, including The Food Demon (Shokuma).
Cornell University Press, Hesperus Press
2012 - - No prize was awarded
2013 Copper Canyon Press
2014 Other Press, Canongate Books
2015
  • Steven D. Carter for The Columbia Anthology of Japanese Essay
  • Terry Gallagher for Self-Reference ENGINE by Toh EnJoe
  • Stephen D. Miller and Patrick Donnelly for The Wind from Vulture Peak
Columbia University Press, VIZ Media, Cornell University Press
2016 - - No prize was awarded
2017
  • David Boyd for Slow Boat by Hideo Furukawa
  • Hiroaki Sato for The Silver Spoon: Memoir of a Boyhood in Japan by Kansuke Naka
Pushkin Press, Stone Bridge Press
2018 Cornell University Press
2019 Kurodahan Press, New Directions Publishing
2020
  • Gerald Groemer for Portraits of Edo and Early Modern Japan: The Shogun's Capital in Zuihitsu Writings, 1657-1855
Palgrave Macmillan
2021 New Directions Publishing, Cornell University Press
2022
  • Brian Bergstrom for Trinity, Trinity, Trinity by Erika Kobayashi
Astra House
2023 Columbia University Press, Pushkin Press
1 Note: From 1979 to 1988, only a single translation prize was given annually. Beginning in 1989, the prize was given in two categories: translations from Japanese classical literature and translation from Japanese modern literature (although such distinctions vary as does the number of winners in a given year).
2 Note: Where it applies, first the publisher of the first work mentioned then the publisher of the second work mentioned, separated by a comma.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Donald Keene Center of Japanese Culture -- Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Prizes for the Translation of Japanese Literature". Duke University Research Funding. Retrieved 27 February 2024.
  2. ^ "Archive of past prize winners for the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Prize for the Translation of Japanese Literature". Donald Keene Center. Retrieved 26 February 2024.
  3. ^ "Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Prizes for the Translation of Japanese Literature". Donald Keene Center. Retrieved 26 February 2024.