People today have more ways than ever to access the fascinating world of Japan, from film to literature to animation to cuisine. The past years have seen a veritable explosion of interest in Japanese culture across the globe. As cultural boundaries become more porous, our ideas about "culture" and our experience of it are being transformed.

The Donald Keene Center of Japanese Culture at Columbia University continues to foster discussion about Japan, its culture, and its interaction with other cultures in forming our common global heritage.

The year 2006 marks the 20th anniversary of the Keene Center, presenting a milestone for our institution and its educational goals. Our mission is to encourage cultural dialogue and to inform discussion of the present with knowledge of the past. We are well positioned to pursue what Columbia President Lee C. Bollinger has identified as one of his top priorities: to promote and expand globalization within the university.

*The Keene Center combines an ideal location in New York City, a global hub of cultural exchange, with the internationally known resources of Columbia University.

*The Keene Center works closely with the C.V. Starr East Asian Library at Columbia, home to one of the five largest East Asian collections outside of Asia.

*The Keene Center has accumulated two decades of experience in introducing Japanese culture to Western audiences, and in 1996 received the Japan Foundation's Special Prize for the first decade of our work.

*The Keene Center's programs address all aspects of Japanese culture, ranging from the eleventh-century court romance The Tale of Genji to the twentieth-century movie rampages of Godzilla and contemporary manga and anime. 

 

To mark its anniversary year, the Keene Center has launched an initiative in celebration of Donald Keene, University Professor and Shincho Professor Emeritus of Japanese Literature, the renowned scholar for whom the Keene Center is named. The initiative is titled GLOBAL JAPAN: Past, Present, and Future, and we invite your participation in these efforts.

GLOBAL JAPAN extends in scope to the Starr Library and other parts of Columbia's large constellation of Japan-related resources. The program will explore the following commitments:

*To define and pursue new directions in the study of Japan, including new media, contemporary culture, and interdisciplinary inquiry.

*To expand educational resources by acquiring new materials and creating additional opportunities and incentives for research and learning.

*To broaden audiences by hosting a series of public events that reflect on the Keene Center's past achievements and point the way to the future.

As academic inquiry broadens to include different modes of cultural production, becoming less "book-bound," we must explore new ways to experience and learn about Japan. From children's toys to popular film to multi-media arts, the field of Japan studies today examines culture from every angle, transforming traditional academic categories.

The Keene Center stands at the forefront of these new directions, illuminating connections between past and present, old and new, Japan and the larger world. At a time when public fascination with Japanese culture is growing so fast, the Keene Center provides a ideal way for people all backgrounds to deepen their understanding of Japan's importance within contemporary civilization.

The rich resources of the Starr Library are critical components in this expanded study, vital for organizing film collections, digital research tools, and performance-related materials, as well as the ever-growing collection of books and periodicals. With more than a century of service and a renowned staff of experienced library professionals, it makes possible the groundbreaking work in East Asian Studies pursued at Columbia, throughout North America, and elsewhere in the Western world.

In the spirit of creating an open educational space, the Keene Center offers its events to the public free of charge. That is precisely why your support plays so vital a role in helping the Keene Center to pursue its mission. Greater contact between Japan and other cultures requires that we take active steps to nourish and enhance mutual understanding. By supporting the GLOBAL JAPAN initiative, you can help ensure that our shared knowledge evolves to match the changing world in which we live. 

 

To celebrate the 2006 Anniversary Year, the Keene Center and the Starr Library take pleasure in hosting the following special events, all of which are free and open to the public.

SPRING 2006

*Commemorative Reception at Starr Library in Celebration of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Publication of the Anthology of Japanese Literature by Donald Keene

*Announcement of the Donald Keene Prize for the Promotion of Japanese Culture, henceforth to be awarded annually

*18th Annual Sen Lecture, by Donald Keene

FALL 2006

*Commemorative Symposium: The Past and Future of the Book—Transitions in Japanese Publishing Culture

Professor Donald Keene is one of the world's foremost scholars of Japanese literature, history, and culture. His writings and teaching have helped familiarize audiences everywhere with the richness of Japan's heritage. Professor Keene's classic Anthology of Japanese Literature has its 50th anniversary in 2006, having remained in print for five decades.

"Like a warm wind, Donald Keene's loving translations of Japanese literature opened up a window to the West that had long been frozen over."

—ÔOKA Makoto, poet and critic

The Donald Keene Center is an important resource for Columbia and New York City. It enlivens the study of Japanese arts and culture by bringing renowned artists, experts, and scholars to our campus and hosting many artistic and cultural events that are free and open to the public. We celebrate the Keene Center on its 20th anniversary for its contributions and for its continued commitment to excellence in the study of cultural diversity and in fostering the exchange of global perspectives.

*Peter DUUS, Professor Emeritus, Stanford University:

Aptly named in honor of one of the world's leading authorities on Japanese literature, the Donald Keene Center is dedicated to advancing knowledge about Japanese history and culture in the United States. Its contributions toward that important goal are widely known and respected.

*Karl FRIDAY, author of Legacies of the Sword, Hired Swords, and Samurai, Warfare, and the State in Early Medieval Japan:

In just two decades the Donald Keene Center has emerged as an institutional nonpareil that truly does justice to its namesake.

*Beate Sirota GORDON, author and cultural ambassador:

The Keene Center has made a tremendous contribution to the citizenry of New York. Its excellent presentations of lectures concerning Japanese culture have enriched us, have made us more sensitive to Japanese concerns, and thus have helped us on the road to peaceful co-existence.

*Fred KATAYAMA, former CNN anchor and reporter / Fortune magazine Tokyo correspondent / NHK "Japan Business Today" reporter:

What a fabulous resource! The Keene Center brings to life what I read in books as a Columbia undergrad. What surprises me is its breadth of coverage. Tackling topics from Genji to Godzilla, it goes beyond what one might expect from the ivory tower. It enriches what I've learned in the past while updating me on current trends in Japan. The Keene Center's existence underscores another resource no other university can claim: the inspiration, legacy, and continued contributions of Professor Donald Keene himself.

*MANABE Shunshô, Professor, Shikoku University:

For twenty years, the Keene Center has worked tirelessly to introduce American audiences to the literature and traditional arts of Japan. It boasts a substantial track record in the field of U.S.-Japan cultural relations.

*Donald RODEN, Professor of Japanese History, Rutgers University:

In its short history, no institution has better served the academic community and, more important, the public at large in the promotion of cultural understanding between the United States and Japan. Far from a cloistered enclave for scholars, the Keene Center offers a vibrant host of events, featuring artists, writers, film makers and musicians, which are nearly always open to the public and free of charge.

*Timon SCREECH, Chair, Japan Research Centre, University of London:

Your presence has been a beacon and a challenge for us.  I hope you will continue to flourish and lead the way with Japanese Studies in the USA, and around the world.

*SUZUKI Tadashi, stage director:

Japanese culture is often misunderstood as being dominated by a single set of values. But in fact a multitude of values lies hidden beneath the surface. For this reason it is necessary to adopt a variety of perspectives in order to appreciate its distinctive character. The Keene Center has been carrying out this work for many years. Its activities are sure to grow even further in importance in the future.

*TORIGOE Bunzô, Professor Emeritus, Waseda University:

The Keene Center combines the gifts of Professor Donald Keene with the talents of the various distinguished individuals who have been associated with it over the years. It represents a point of departure for Japanese culture in the United States, and will provide one of the foundations of its circulation more broadly around the globe in years to come.

*Brett L. WALKER, Director, Japan Studies Program, Montana State University-Bozeman:

Over the past twenty years, conferences and symposia sponsored by the Keene Center have resulted in a number of path-breaking publications—including, recently, one of my own (JAPANimals: History and Culture in Japan's Animal Life, co-edited with Gregory M. Pflugfelder). In this way, the Keene Center's work in expanding knowledge about Japan reaches far beyond New York City and even beyond the United States.