FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

"COLUMBIA ANNOUNCES NEW CULTURAL PRIZE"

1 MARCH 2006

The Donald Keene Center of Japanese Culture at Columbia University is pleased to announce the establishment of a new and important prize in the field of cultural relations.

The Donald Keene Prize for the Promotion of Japanese Culture recognizes individuals and organizations that have made significant contributions toward expanding awareness of Japanese culture in the world at large.

Reflecting the world-renowned scholar Donald Keene's ongoing legacy of introducing Japanese culture to new international audiences, the Prize acknowledges work that has enriched the appreciation of Japanese culture beyond Japan's own borders.

The Donald Keene Prize honors Japanese culture in all its forms, both traditional and contemporary, and this diversity is recognized in the selection of Prize recipients.

The Prize, which will be awarded annually, was established in February 2006 to mark the Twentieth Anniversary of the founding of the Donald Keene Center of Japanese Culture.

An Award Ceremony honoring the first recipient of the Donald Keene Prize will be held on April 12th, 2006. The event will take place in the Rotunda of Low Memorial Library (535 West 116th Street), located on Columbia University's Morningside Campus near the corner of 116th Street and Broadway, at 5:30 PM. RSVP to 212 854 0656 or info@donaldkeenecenter.org.

Immediately following the Award Ceremony, Columbia University Professor Emeritus Donald Keene will deliver the Eighteenth Annual Soshitsu Sen Distinguished Lecture on Japanese Culture. The Sen Lecture is held yearly at Columbia University in order to increase American awareness and understanding of Japanese culture.

For more information on the Donald Keene Center of Japanese Culture, please visit its web site at www.donaldkeenecenter.org.

Founded in 1986 at Columbia University, the Donald Keene Center of Japanese Culture is named in honor of Professor Donald Keene, internationally renowned scholar, Columbia University teacher, and interpreter of Japanese literature and culture to the West. The Center is dedicated to advancing the understanding of Japan and its culture in the United States through university instruction, research, and public education. In addition, the Center seeks to encourage study of the interrelationships among the cultures of Japan, other Asian countries, Europe, and the United States.

The Donald Keene Center arranges and hosts numerous events throughout the academic year, inviting leading Japanese and non-Japanese scholars, writers, artists, performers, and other Japan specialists to Columbia University and to New York City. Its many informal lectures and discussions permit casual interaction with prominent Japanese cultural figures, and its more formal lectures provide one of the few settings for introducing such figures to the American public. In recent years, the Center has hosted such diverse speakers as poet and literary critic ÔOKA Makoto, novelist and Buddhist cleric SETOUCHI Jakuchô, Nobel Prize winning author ÔE Kenzaburô, distinguished architect TANIGUCHI Yoshio, noted film historian Donald Richie, composer TAKEMITSU Tôru, Noh actors KANZE Hideo and UMEWAKA Rokurô, and the late novelist SHIBA Ryôtarô. The Donald Keene Center also organizes major international conferences and symposia on various aspects of Japanese culture. In addition to scholarly lectures, discussions, and symposia, the Center organizes a wide variety of cultural performances and exhibitions. These range from film series and art exhibits to musical performances, theatrical workshops, and lecture-demonstrations by leading artists, performers, writers, and scholars. Nearly all programs are open to the general public. In recognition of its first decade of contributions to intellectual and cultural exchange between Japan and the United States, the Japan Foundation awarded the Donald Keene Center its special Award for 1996.

Donald Keene is widely regarded as one of the world’s leading interpreters of Japan and its culture. His publications in English and Japanese number nearly sixty volumes, and they in turn have been rendered into languages ranging from Romanian and Swedish to Korean and Nepalese. Through his translations and his teaching, he has helped assure a lasting place in world literature for authors as diverse as the eighteenth-century playwright CHIKAMATSU Monzaemon and modern masters such as MISHIMA Yukio, DAZAI Osamu, and ABE Kôbô. Some of the latter figures counted also among his personal friends.

Donald Keene was born in 1922 in Brooklyn, New York. He began studying Japanese as an undergraduate at Columbia University, and enrolled in the U.S. Navy Japanese Language School following the outbreak of war in the Pacific. After serving as an intelligence officer in the Far East, he returned to the United States to assume a career of scholarship and teaching that has lasted well over a half century. Professor Keene is currently University Professor Emeritus and Shincho Professor Emeritus of Japanese Literature at Columbia, where he still offers courses regularly. The Donald Keene Center of Japanese Culture was named in his honor in 1986, and this year marks its Twentieth Anniversary.

In 2002, Donald Keene received one of the Japanese Government's highest awards, the designation of Person of Cultural Merit (Bunka Kôrôsha). He is only the third non-Japanese to have gained that distinction.