Donald Keene, a noted scholar of Japanese literature, has died of heart failure in a hospital in Tokyo.
Keene studied Japanese literature for over half a century. He introduced Japanese culture to the world through his translations of classical and modern works.
The American-born scholar studied at Kyoto University after World War II and became a professor at Columbia University. He was a close friend of well-known Japanese writers, such as Yukio Mishima and Nobel Prize winner Yasunari Kawabata.
Keene received the Order of Culture in 2008. It's Japan's highest cultural award. Keene moved to Japan after the devastating earthquake and tsunami in 2011 to show his solidarity with the Japanese people. Keene became a Japanese citizen in 2012.
He remained active despite his age, but his agent says Keene was in and out of hospital in the last several months. Donald Keene was 96.
◆Order of Culture文化勲章
◆solidarity連帯loyalty and general agreement between all the people in a group, or between different groups, because they all have a shared aim
a gesture of solidarity
◆in and out of hospital入退院を繰り返して to prevent something unpleasant from happening
