The Japan–U.S. Friendship Commission Prize for the Translation of Japanese Literature was established in 1979 and is administered by the Donald Keene Center of Japanese Culture at Columbia University. It is the oldest prize for Japanese literary translation in the United States.
Works entered into competition are judged on the literary merit of the translation and the accuracy with which it reflects the spirit of the Japanese original.
The Keene Center annually awards $6,000 (USD) in Japan–U.S. Friendship Commission Prizes for the Translation of Japanese Literature. A prize is given for the best translation of a modern work or a classical work, or the prize is divided between equally distinguished translations.
List of winners
The following is a list of the winners:
Year Winner(s) Publisher Notes 1979 Mr. Ian Hideo Levy for Man'yōshū (万葉集) and Prof. Robert Epp for Poetry by Kinoshita by Yuji Kinoshita Princeton University Press, Yuji Katydid Books The first prize ever given was a shared prize. 1980 Prof. Juliet Winters Carpenter for Secret Rendezvous (密会, Mikkai) by Kōbō Abe Alfred A. Knopf 1981 Prof. Kären Wigen for A View by the Sea (海辺の光景, Kaihen no kōkei) by Shōtarō Yasuoka, a collection of short fiction including the titular novella Columbia University Press 1982 Prof. Laurel Rasplica Rodd for Kokinshū: A Collection of Poems Ancient and Modern (古今集, Kokinshū) Princeton University Press 1983 Prof. Phyllis Lyons for The Selected Works of Dazai Osamu by Osamu Dazai Stanford University Press 1984 - - No prize was awarded 1985 Mr. Lane Dunlop for A Late Chrysanthemum: Twenty-four Stories from the Japanese (a short story collection including works by Naoya Shiga, Yasunari Kawabata, Osamu Dazai, Kōbō Abe, Fumiko Hayashi, among others) North Point Press 1986 - - No prize was awarded 1987 Prof. William E. Naff for Before the Dawn (夜明け前, Yoakemae) by Tōson Shimazaki University of Hawaiʻi Press 1988 Prof. Carol Apollonio Flath for The Phoenix Tree and Other Stories (青桐, Aogiri) by Satoko Kizaki Kodansha International 1989 Modern: Ms. Phyllis Birnbaum for Confessions of Love (色ざんげ, Iro zange) by Chiyo Uno Classical: Prof. Steven Carter for Waiting for the Wind: 36 Poets of Japan's Late Medieval Period University of Hawaiʻi Press, Columbia University Press 1990 Modern: Prof. Stephen Snyder for The Signore (安土 往還記, Azuchi ōkanki) by Kunio Tsuji Classical: Prof. Paul Gordon Schalow for The Great Mirror of Male Love (男色大鏡, Nanshoku Ōkagami) by Ihara Saikaku Kodansha International, Stanford University Press 1991 Modern: Prof. Paul McCarthy for A Cat, A Man, and Two Women (猫と庄造と二人の女, Neko to Shōzō to futari no onna) by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki Classical: Prof. Margaret Childs for Rethinking Sorrow: Revelatory Tales of Late Medieval Japan Kodansha International, University of Michigan Center for Japanese Studies 1992 Modern: Ms. Eve Zimmerman for Strawberry Road by Ishikawa Yoshimi Classical: Prof. Edwin Cranston for A Waka Anthology: The Gem-Glistening Cup. Vol I Kodansha International, Stanford University Press 1993 - - No prize was awarded 1994 Modern: Mr. Wayne P. Lammers for Still Life and Other Stories (静物, Seibutsu) by Junzo Shono Classical: Prof. H. Mack Horton for The Journal of Socho by Saiokuken Socho Stone Bridge Press, Stanford University Press 1995 - - No prize was awarded 1996 Modern: Prof. John Solt Glass Beret for The Selected Poems of Kitasono Katsue (1902-78) by Katué Kitasono Classical: Prof. Makoto Ueda for Modern Japanese Tanka Morgan Press, Columbia University Press 1997 - - No prize was awarded 1998 Modern: Prof. Elaine Gerbert for Love of Mountains (Yamagoi) by Kōji Uno Classical: Prof. J. Thomas Rimer and Prof. Jonathan Chaves for Japanese and Chinese Poems to Sing: The Wakan Roei-shu University of Hawaiʻi Press, Columbia University Press 1999 Modern: Prof. Jay Rubin for The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (ねじまき鳥クロニクル, Nejimakidori Kuronikuruu) by Haruki Murakami Classical: Mr. Hiroaki Sato for Breeze Through Bamboo by Ema Saikō Alfred A. Knopf, Columbia University Press 2000 Modern: Ms. Meredith McKinney for Ravine and Other Stories by Yoshikichi Furui Classical: Prof. Roger K. Thomas for A Tale of False Fortunes (Namamiko Monogatari) by Fumiko Enchi Stone Bridge Press, University of Hawai’i Press 2001 Modern: Prof. James Philip Gabriel for Life in the Cul-De-Sac (群棲, Gunsei) by Kuroi Senji Classical: Prof. Mae J. Smethurst for Dramatic Representations of Filial Piety: Five Noh in Translation Stone Bridge Press, Cornell University Press 2002 Prof. Royall Tyler for The Tale of Genji (源氏物語, Genji monogatari) by Murasaki Shikibu Viking Press 2003 Modern: Shogo Oketani and Leza Lowitz for America and Other Poems by Ayukawa Nobuo Classical: Charles S. Inouye for Japanese Gothic Tales (Volume Two) by Kyōka Izumi Kaya Press, University of Hawai’i Press 2004 Prof. Lawrence Rogers for Tokyo Stories: A Literary Stroll, a collection of short fiction set in different areas of Tokyo, including pieces by Kyūsaku Yumeno, Yukio Mishima, Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, Yasunari Kawabata, Natsume Sōseki and others University of California Press 2005 Modern: Prof. Yosei Sugawara The Gift of Numbers by Yōko Ogawa Classical: Prof. Damian Flanagan for The Tower of London by Natsume Sōseki Picador, Peter Owen Publishers 2006 Modern: Prof. Edward Fowler A Man with No Talents: Memoirs of a Tokyo Day Laborer by Ōyama Shirō Classical: Prof. Joel Cohn for Botchan: A Modern Classic by Natsume Sōseki Cornell University Press, Kodansha USA 2007 Modern: Prof. Kozue Uzawa and Ms. Amelia Fielden for Ferris Wheel: 101 Modern and Contemporary Tanka Classical: Prof. Anthony H. Chambers for Tales of Moonlight and Rain (雨月物語, Ugetsu Monogatari) by Ueda Akinari Cheng & Tsui, Columbia University Press 2008 Prof. Dennis C. Washburn for The Temple of the Wild Geese (雁の寺, Gan no tera) and Bamboo Dolls of Echizen (越前竹人形, Echizen takeningyō) by Tsutomu Mizukami. Dalkey Archive Press 2009 Modern: Prof. Jeffrey M. Angles for Forest of Eyes: Selected Poems of Tada Chimako by Tada Chimako Classical: Prof. Esperanza Ramirez-Christensen Murmured Conversations. A Treatise on Poetry and Buddhism by the Poet-Monk Shinkei by Shinkei University of California Press, Stanford University Press 2010 Modern: Prof. Michael Emmerich for Manazuru (真鶴) by Hiromi Kawakami Classical: Prof. Tom Hare for Zeami: Performance Notes by Zeami Motokiyo Counterpoint, Cambridge University Press 2011 Matthew Fraleigh for New Chronicles of Yanagibashi and Diary of a Journey to the West: Narushima Ryūhoku Reports from Home and Abroad by Narushima Ryūhoku J. Keith Vincent for A Riot of Goldfish (金魚撩乱, Kingyo ryōran) by Kanoko Okamoto, including The Food Demon (Shokuma). Cornell University Press, Hesperus Press 2012 - - No prize was awarded 2013 W.S. Merwin and Takako Lento for Collected Haiku of Yosa Buson by Yosa Buson Copper Canyon Press 2014 Juliet Winters Carpenter for A True Novel (本格小説, Honkaku Shōsetsu) by Minae Mizumura Rebecca Copeland for The Goddess Chronicle (女神記, Joshinki) by Natsuo Kirino Other Press, Canongate Books 2015 Steven D. Carter for The Columbia Anthology of Japanese Essay Terry Gallagher for Self-Reference ENGINE by Toh EnJoe Stephen D. Miller and Patrick Donnelly for The Wind from Vulture Peak Columbia University Press, VIZ Media, Cornell University Press 2016 - - No prize was awarded 2017 David Boyd for Slow Boat by Hideo Furukawa Hiroaki Sato for The Silver Spoon: Memoir of a Boyhood in Japan by Kansuke Naka Pushkin Press, Stone Bridge Press 2018 Takako Lento for Pioneers of Modern Japanese Poetry by Mitsuharu Kaneko Cornell University Press 2019 Janine Beichman for Beneath the Sleepless Tossing of the Planets, Selected Poems 1972-1989 by Makoto Ōoka Sam Bett for Star by Yukio Mishima Kurodahan Press, New Directions Publishing 2020 Gerald Groemer for Portraits of Edo and Early Modern Japan: The Shogun's Capital in Zuihitsu Writings, 1657-1855 Palgrave Macmillan 2021 David Boyd for The Hole (穴, Ana) by Hiroko Oyamada Glynne Walley for Eight Dogs, or Hakkenden: Part One—An Ill-Considered Jest by Kyokutei Bakin New Directions Publishing, Cornell University Press 2022 Brian Bergstrom for Trinity, Trinity, Trinity by Erika Kobayashi Astra House 2023 Torquil Duthie for The Kokinshū: Selected Poems Kendall Heitzman for Nails and Eyes by Kaori Fujino Columbia University Press, Pushkin Press 2024 David Boyd for Takaoka’s Travels by Tatsuhiko Shibusawa Stone Bridge Press, MONKEY imprint 2025 Joshua S. Mostow for Hyakunin’shu: Reading the Hundred Poets in Late Edo Japan University of Hawaiʻi Press
Note: From 1979 to 1988, only a single translation prize was given annually. Beginning in 1989, the prize was given in two categories: translations from Japanese classical literature and translation from Japanese modern literature (although such distinctions vary as does the number of winners in a given year). In some years only the classical translation is awarded. Note: Where it applies, first the publisher of the first work mentioned then the publisher of the second work mentioned, separated by a comma.
See also Japan–United States Friendship Act of 1975
References