Ryūsaku Tsunoda

角田柳作

Ryūsaku Tsunoda in his Columbia University classroom

Born(1877-09-08)September 8, 1877

Gunma prefecture, Japan

DiedNovember 29, 1964(1964-11-29) (aged 87)

Honolulu, Hawaii, United States

OccupationJapanese studies

Ryūsaku Tsunoda (角田柳作, Tsunoda Ryūsaku, 8 September 1877 - 29 November 1964) is known as the "father of Japanese studies" at Columbia University.^[1] He was directly responsible for developing the Japanese language and literature collection at Columbia's library.^[2] Prominent among the former-students who credit his influence as formative is Donald Keene,^[3] who had himself become a later Dean of Japanese studies in the United States.

Biography

Tsunoda was the youngest of seven children born to a family of peasants in Japan. He studied at Waseda University, and later developed interest in the United States. ^[4]

Keene's own perspective on Tsunoda was expressed in a lecture given at Waseda University in 1994:

"His vocation was teaching, not writing. His joy as a teacher lay in communicating knowledge directly and enthusiastically to his students. ... As one of his students, I feel it regrettable that Prof. Tsunoda is not known just because he did not publish anything."^[5]

Selected works

In an overview of writings by and about Tsunoda, OCLC/WorldCat lists roughly 50 works in 100+2 publications in 4 languages and 2,000+ library holdings.^[6]

This list is not finished; you can help Wikipedia by adding to it.

Japan in the Chinese Dynastic Histories, 1951 (with L. Carrington Goodrich)
Sources of Japanese Tradition, Vols. I-II, 1958 (with William Theodore de Bary and Donald Keene)

Notes

^ Columbia University: "Founder of Japanese Studies and the Japanese Collection at Columbia University Honored With Event and Exhibition," 2008.
^ C.V. Star East Asian Library, About the Japanese Collection; retrieved 2012-11-5.
^ Keene, Donald. (1999). World Within Walls: Japanese Literature of the Pre-Modern Era, 1600-1867, p. xi.
^ Dr. "Ryusaku Tsunoda, 87, Dies; Ex‐Columbia Japanese Scholar" New York Times, Dec. 1, 1964
^ Keene, Donald. "My Mentor, Prof. Ryusaku Tsunoda," Yomiuri Daily Online (Waseda Online). July 8, 1994).
^ WorldCat Identities: Tsunoda, Ryūsaku 1877-1964; retrieved 2012-11-5.

References

de Bary, William Theodore. "East Asian Studies at Columbia: The Early Years," Living Legacies: Great Moments and Leading Figures in the History of Columbia University, 2002.
Shirai, Katsuhiko. "Take Pride in Waseda," Waseda Weekly, April 2006. Shinjuku, Tokyo: Waseda University.
Profile at Waseda University