John Nathan

John Nathan (born 1940) is the translator of Japanese works written by celebrated authors such as Yukio Mishima and Kenzaburo Oe. He is also an Emmy-award winning director of several documentaries and author of numerous works on Japan.

After graduating from Harvard University, he visited Japan and studied at University of Tokyo. He is presently the Takashima Professor of Japanese Cultural Studies at University of California, Santa Barbara. He teaches at least one class a year in the College of Creative Studies.

John Nathan's fields include Japanese culture, Japanese literature, Japanese cinema, the theory and practice of translation, and the sociology of business culture. The first American to be admitted as a regular student to the University of Tokyo, he spent many years living and studying in Japan. He is the author of a definitive biography of novelist Yukio Mishima and he has also translated novels by Mishima and by Nobel laureate Kenzaburo Oe. When Oe received the Nobel Prize in 1994, Nathan accompanied him to Stockholm. Nathan is also an Emmy-award winning producer, writer and director of many films about Japanese culture and society and American business.

Works

Translations

* "The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea" by Yukio Mishima
* "A Personal Matter" by Kenzaburo Oe
* "Rouse Up O Young Men of the New Age!" by Kenzaburo Oe
* "Teach Us to Outgrow Our Madness" by Kenzaburo Oe

Books

* "" (1974)
* "" (1999)
* "" (2004)
* "Living Carelessly in Tokyo and Elsewhere" (autobiography -- New York: Free Press. March 2008)
* "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.
* "Kenzaburo Oe: 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)
* "The Colonel Goes to Japan" (1982, Emmy Award) - A film about KFC in Japan.
* "Daimyo" (1988)
* The Japanese, A Film Trilogy: Full Moon Lunch, The Blind Swordsman, Farm Song, 1979.

External links

* [http://colinmarshall.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=322071 An interview with John Nathan] on "The Marketplace of Ideas"