John Nathan

John Weil Nathan (born March 1940) is an American translator, writer, scholar, filmmaker, and Japanologist. His translations from Japanese into English include the works of Yukio Mishima, Kenzaburō Ōe, Kōbō Abe, and Natsume Sōseki.[4] Nathan is also an Emmy Award-winning producer, writer and director of many films about Japanese culture and society and American business. He is currently the Takashima Professor of Japanese Cultural Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

John Nathan
Born
John Weil Nathan[1]

March 1940 (age 80)[2][3]
New York City, New York, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Occupation
  • Translator
  • writer
  • scholar
  • filmmaker
Years active1960s–present
Known forJapanese translations and cultural studies
Academic background
Alma materHarvard University
University of Tokyo
Academic work
InstitutionsPrinceton University
University of California, Santa Barbara

Biography

Nathan was born in New York City and spent part of his childhood in Tucson, Arizona.[5] He was born into a non-practicing Jewish family.[6] His father was a painter,[7] and his grandfather was a reporter at The Jewish Daily Forward.[8] Nathan graduated from Harvard College, where he studied under Edwin O. Reischauer.[9] Nathan became the first American to pass the entrance exams of the University of Tokyo and be admitted as a traditional student.[10][11] He lived in Tokyo for eight years,[10] and married Japanese artist Mayumi Oda in 1962.[12] Nathan later received a doctorate in Far Eastern languages from Harvard University.[10] He became a professor of Japanese literature at Princeton University in the 1970s.[13] He is currently the Takashima Professor of Japanese Cultural Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB).[14][15]

Nathan's works focus on Japanese culture, Japanese literature, Japanese cinema, the theory and practice of translation,[16] and the sociology of business culture. Nathan first met Yukio Mishima in 1963.[7] In 1965, at the age of 25, Nathan translated Mishima's The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea. Impressed by Nathan's translation, Mishima requested Nathan sign on as his translator and help Mishima in his quest in being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Nathan was more interested in translating the work of Kenzaburō Ōe. Nathan ultimately refused to translate Mishima's 1964 novel Kinu to Meisatsu (絹と明察), opting instead to translate Kenzaburō Ōe's 1964 novel Kojinteki na Taiken (個人的な体験). Mishima, who was considered an "arch-rival" of Ōe, abruptly severed ties with Nathan afterwards.[17][18] In 1974, Nathan authored Mishima: A Biography (1974), a definitive biography of Yukio Mishima. In 1994, Kenzaburō Ōe was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature and Nathan accompanied him to Stockholm.[19]

Nathan left Princeton in the late 1970s to pursue filmmaking. He created three documentaries about the Japanese.[8]

In 1999, Nathan published Sony: The Private Life, a biography of Sony Corporation. The book was the product of 115 interviews conducted by Nathan with current and past key executives of Sony.[20][21] In 2004, he published Japan Unbound: A Volatile Nation's Quest for Pride and Purpose, a scholarly work which provides a historical context to contemporary Japan.[22] In 2008, Nathan published his memoir, Living Carelessly in Tokyo and Elsewhere.[23] In 2013, Nathan published a translation of Natsume Sōseki's unfinished novel Light and Dark.[24] In 2018, Nathan published a biography of Sōseki titled Sōseki: Modern Japan's Greatest Novelist.[25]

Reception

Nathan was described by Damian Flanagan in The Japan Times as "the one critic of Japanese literature that towers above the rest."[17]

Works

Novels
  • Mishima, Yukio (1965). The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 978-0-399-50489-1.
  • Ōe, Kenzaburō (1968). A Personal Matter. New York: Grove Press.
  • Ōe, Kenzaburō (1977). Teach Us to Outgrow Our Madness: Four Short Novels. New York: Grove Press. ISBN 978-0-8021-5185-8.
  • Ōe, Kenzaburō (2002). Rouse Up O Young Men of the New Age!. New York: Grove Press. ISBN 978-0-8021-1710-6.
  • Sōseki, Natsume (2013). Light and Dark. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-16142-8.

Short stories
  • Ōe, Kenzaburō (1965). "Lavish Are the Dead". Japan Quarterly. Vol. 12 no. 2 (April–June 1965 ed.). pp. 193–211.[26]
  • Abe, Kōbō (1966). "Stick". Japan Quarterly. Vol. 13 (April–June 1966 ed.). pp. 214–217.[27]
  • Abe, Kōbō (1966). "Red Cocoon". Japan Quarterly. Vol. 13 (April–June 1966 ed.). pp. 217–219.[27]

Books
  • Mishima: A Biography. Boston: Little, Brown. 1974. ISBN 978-0-316-59844-6.
  • Sony: The Private Life. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. 1999. ISBN 978-0-395-89327-2.
  • Japan Unbound: A Volatile Nation's Quest for Pride and Purpose. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. 2004. ISBN 978-0-618-13894-4.
  • Living Carelessly in Tokyo and Elsewhere: A Memoir. New York: Free Press. 2008. ISBN 978-1-4165-5345-8.
  • Sōseki: Modern Japan's Greatest Novelist. New York: Columbia University Press. 2018. ISBN 978-0-231-17142-7.
  • "Tokyo Story: A Profile of Shintaro Ishihara." The New Yorker, April 9, 2001.
  • Words, Ideas, and Ambiguities: Four Perspectives on Translating from the Japanese. Howard Hibbett, Edwin McClellan, John Nathan and Edward Seidensticker. Chicago, Ill.: Imprint Publications, 2000.
  • "Kenzaburō Ōe: Mapping the Land of Dreams." Japan Quarterly 42(1), January–March, 1995.

Documentary film
  • The Japanese, A Film Trilogy: Full Moon Lunch, The Blind Swordsman, Farm Song (1979); music for Farm Song written by Toru Takemitsu
  • The Colonel Comes to Japan (1982, Emmy Award) - A film about KFC in Japan.
  • Daimyo - The Arts of Feudal Japan (1988)

References
  1. "高木八尺文庫キャビネット内史料リスト -- no. 522 詳細". cpas.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp. Retrieved December 28, 2020.
  2. John Nathan (March 18, 2008). Living Carelessly in Tokyo and Elsewhere: A Memoir. Simon and Schuster. p. 103. ISBN 978-1-4165-9378-2.
  3. Frank Northen Magill (1977). Survey of Contemporary Literature: Updated Reprints of 2,300 Essay-reviews from Masterplots Annuals, 1954-1976, and Survey of Contemporary Literature Supplement : with 3,300 Bibliographical Reference Sources. Salem Press. ISBN 978-0-89356-058-4.
  4. France, Peter (2001). The Oxford Guide to Literature in English Translation. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199247844.
  5. "John Nathan". Simon & Schuster. Retrieved April 14, 2020.
  6. John Nathan (March 18, 2008). Living Carelessly in Tokyo and Elsewhere: A Memoir. Simon and Schuster. pp. 223–224. ISBN 978-1-4165-9378-2.
  7. Marshall, Colin (26 April 2010). "Unceasing fascination with Japan, immersion in literary culture and the pleasures and sorrows of the "thrown" life: Colin Marshall talks to writer, translator, filmmaker and teacher John Nathan". 3 Quarks Daily. Retrieved 30 July 2020.
  8. McAlpin, Heller (March 30, 2008). "Gained in translation". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved July 30, 2020.
  9. John Nathan (March 18, 2008). Living Carelessly in Tokyo and Elsewhere: A Memoir. Simon and Schuster. p. 3. ISBN 978-1-4165-9378-2.
  10. O'Connor, John J. (July 1, 1979). "The Joy of Genuine Expertise". The New York Times. Retrieved April 14, 2020.
  11. "'Living Carelessly in Tokyo and Elsewhere' with translator John Nathan | The Japan Times". The Japan Times. Retrieved 2018-05-18.
  12. "Religion Book Review: Sarasvati's Gift: The Autobiography of Mayumi Oda—Artist, Activist, and Modern Buddhist Revolutionary by Mayumi Oda". Publishers Weekly. July 14, 2020. Retrieved December 28, 2020.
  13. Clurman, Harold (December 29, 1974). "The Life and Death of Yukio Mishima". The New York Times. Retrieved April 14, 2020.
  14. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2011-07-20. Retrieved 2011-01-10.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  15. "UCSB Professor's Memoir on Japan, America, Film, and Literature". www.independent.com. Archived from the original on 2019-03-06. Retrieved 2018-05-18.
  16. France, Miranda (March 3, 2019). "Between worlds: in praise of the literary translator". Prospect. Retrieved 3 March 2019.
  17. "Literature critic John Nathan dissects Japan's Nobel Prize laureates | The Japan Times". The Japan Times. Retrieved 2018-05-18.
  18. Morris, Mark (October 25, 1998). "Raw Material". The New York Times. Retrieved April 14, 2020.
  19. "John Nathan - FORA.tv Speaker - FORA.tv". library.fora.tv. Retrieved 2018-05-18.
  20. Cooper, Richard N. "Sony: The Private Life by John Nathan". Foreign Affairs (September/October 1999 ed.). Retrieved 30 July 2020.
  21. https://products.kitsapsun.com/archive/1999/10-01/0013_inside_look_at_sony_lacks_excitem.html
  22. "Nonfiction Book Review: Japan Unbound: A Volatile Nation's Quest for Pride and Purpose by John Nathan". Publishers Weekly. 16 February 2004. Retrieved 30 July 2020.
  23. "Living Carelessly in Tokyo and Elsewhere: A Memoir by John Nathan". Kirkus Reviews. 15 December 2007. Retrieved 30 July 2020.
  24. "Light and Dark". Columbia University Press. Retrieved 30 July 2020.
  25. "Sōseki: Modern Japan's Greatest Novelist". Columbia University Press. Retrieved 30 July 2020.
  26. Michiko N. Wilson (September 16, 2016). The Marginal World of Oe Kenzaburo: A Study of Themes and Techniques: A Study of Themes and Techniques. Taylor & Francis. p. 133. ISBN 978-1-315-28627-3.
  27. Arthur G. Kimball (September 13, 2016). Crisis in Identity: and Contemporary Japanese Novels. Tuttle Publishing. p. 125. ISBN 978-1-4629-1208-7.
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