Ryūsaku Tsunoda

is known as the "father of Japanese studies" at Columbia University. [Columbia University: [http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/indiv/eastasian/Japan/J-libraries.print.html "Founder of Japanese Studies and the Japanese Collection at Columbia University Honored With Event and Exhibition,"] 2008.] He was directly responsible for developing the Japanese language and literature collection at Columbia's library. [Columbia University: [http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/indiv/eastasian/Japan/J-libraries.print.html C.V. Starr East Asian Library, the Japanese Collection] ] Prominent among the former-students who credit his influence as formative is Donald Keene, [Keene, Donald. (1999). [http://books.google.com/books?id=gwQTF-9axqoC&pg=PR11&lpg=PR11&dq=Tsunoda+Ry%C5%ABsaku&source=web&ots=QiaYex5uSZ&sig=VNMaB8hFUxZkN3YDOzUqK6ukj_4&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=9&ct=result "World Within Walls: Japanese Literature of the Pre-Modern Era, 1600-1867," p. xi.] ] who has himself become over time the current Dean of Japanese studies in the United States.

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." [Keene, Donald. [http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/adv/wol/dy/culture/okuma_080423.htm "My Mentor, Prof. Ryusaku Tsunoda,"] "Yomiuri Daily Online" (Waseda Online). July 8, 1994).]

elect works

* Tsunoda, Ryusaku, William Theodore de Bary and Donald Keene. (1958). "Sources of Japanese Tradition," Vols. I-II. New York: Columbia University Press.
* Tsunoda, Ryusaku and L. Carrington Goodrich. (1951). "Japan in the Chinese Dynastic Histories." New York: Perkins Asiatic Monographs.

Notes

References

* de Bary, William Theodore. [http://www.columbia.edu/cu/alumni/Magazine/Spring2002/AsianStudies.html "East Asian Studies at Columbia: The Early Years,"] "Living Legacies: Great Moments and Leading Figures in the History of Columbia University," 2002.
* Shirai, Katsuhiko. [http://www.waseda.jp/student/weekly/contents/english/e087a.html "Take Pride in Waseda,"] "Waseda Weekly," April 2006. Shinjuku, Tokyo: Waseda University.

External links

* Columbia University: [http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/indiv/eastasian/Japan/J-libraries.print.html "Founder of Japanese Studies and the Japanese Collection at Columbia University Honored With Event and Exhibition,"] 2008.
* Columbia University: [http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/indiv/eastasian/Japan/J-libraries.print.html C.V. Starr East Asian Library, the Japanese Collection]
* Waseda University: [http://www.wul.waseda.ac.jp/tsunoda_web/ Tsunoda Ryūsaku -- his life as a bridge between Japan and America,"] 2008.