{{short description|American translator, writer, filmmaker, and Japanologist}} {{Infobox academic | name = John Nathan | image = | alt = | caption = | birth_name = John Weil Nathan<ref>{{Cite web |title=高木八尺文庫キャビネット内史料リスト – no. 522 詳細 |url=http://www.cpas.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp/lib/list/cab/cab_page522.html |access-date=December 28, 2020 |website=cpas.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp}}</ref> | birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1940|3}}<ref>{{harvnb|Nathan|2008|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=poftzRFrMesC&pg=PA103 103]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Frank Northen Magill|title=Survey of Contemporary Literature: Updated Reprints of 2,300 Essay-reviews from Masterplots Annuals, 1954-1976, and Survey of Contemporary Literature Supplement : with 3,300 Bibliographical Reference Sources|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YUc4AAAAMAAJ|year=1977|publisher=Salem Press|isbn=978-0-89356-058-4}}</ref> | birth_place = New York City, New York, U.S. | known_for = Japanese translations and cultural studies | occupation = {{flatlist| * Translator * writer * scholar * filmmaker }} | period = 1960s–present | alma_mater = Harvard University<br>University of Tokyo | workplaces = Princeton University<br>University of California, Santa Barbara | spouse = {{plainlist| * {{marriage|Mayumi Oda|1962|end=div}} * {{marriage|Diane Siegelman|1984}} }} | children = 4 }}
'''John Weil Nathan''' (born March 1940) is an American translator, writer, scholar, filmmaker, and Japanologist. His translations from Japanese into English include the works of Yukio Mishima, Kenzaburō Ōe, Kōbō Abe, and Natsume Sōseki.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pmNoS2dndKsC&q=John+Nathan+translator&pg=PA244|title=The Oxford Guide to Literature in English Translation|last=France|first=Peter|date=2001|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780199247844|language=en}}</ref> Nathan is also an Emmy Award-winning producer, writer and director of several films about Japanese culture and society and American business. He is Professor Emeritus of Japanese Cultural Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara.<ref name="ucsb">{{Cite web |title=John Nathan - East Asian Languages & Cultural Studies|url=https://www.eastasian.ucsb.edu/people/faculty/john-nathan/ |access-date=November 1, 2022 |website=eastasian.ucsb.edu}}</ref>
==Early life== Nathan was born in New York City and spent part of his childhood in Tucson, Arizona.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.simonandschuster.com/authors/John-Nathan/44916544 |title=John Nathan |website=Simon & Schuster |access-date=April 14, 2020}}</ref> He was born into a non-practicing Jewish family.<ref>{{harvnb|Nathan|2008|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=poftzRFrMesC&pg=PA224 223–224]}}</ref> His father was a painter,<ref name="3 Quarks Daily"/> and his grandfather was a reporter at ''The Jewish Daily Forward''.<ref name="latimes"/> In 1961,<ref name="John Nathan 5">{{harvnb|Nathan|2008|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=poftzRFrMesC&pg=PA5 5]}}</ref> Nathan graduated from Harvard College, where he studied under Edwin O. Reischauer.<ref>{{harvnb|Nathan|2008|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=poftzRFrMesC&pg=PA3 3]}}</ref>
==Career== The summer after graduation, he worked at Nomura Securities in New York. He moved to Japan directly after, teaching English as a second language to native Japanese speakers at a newly opened English conversation school in Tokyo that had been funded by the Ford Foundation. He was also hired to teach English literature at Tsuda College, a school for young women.<ref name="John Nathan 5" /> Nathan became the first American to pass the entrance exams of the University of Tokyo and be admitted as a traditional student.<ref name="nyt o'connor"/><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2015/11/14/books/book-reviews/living-carelessly-tokyo-elsewhere-translator-john-nathan/|title='Living Carelessly in Tokyo and Elsewhere' with translator John Nathan|last=Flanagan|first=Damian|work=The Japan Times|date=November 14, 2015|access-date=2018-05-18}}</ref> He lived in Tokyo for close to five years and departed Japan in 1966 to start a PhD program at Columbia University in New York.<ref>{{harvnb|Nathan|2008|p=103}}</ref> He dropped out of Columbia and began teaching a class in modern Japanese literature at Princeton University.<ref>{{harvnb|Nathan|2008|p=118}}</ref> In September 1968, Nathan moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he had been appointed a junior fellow in the Society of Fellows at Harvard University.<ref>{{harvnb|Nathan|2008|p=123}}</ref> The status the society conferred allowed Nathan to undergo oral examinations in candidacy for a PhD without having attended graduate school.<ref name="John Nathan 126">{{harvnb|Nathan|2008|p=126}}</ref> Nathan would eventually receive a doctorate in Far Eastern languages from Harvard.<ref name="nyt o'connor">{{Cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1979/07/01/archives/tv-view-the-joy-of-genuine-expertise-tv-view-the-joy-of-genuine.html |title=The Joy of Genuine Expertise |last=O'Connor |first=John J. |date=July 1, 1979 |website=The New York Times |access-date=April 14, 2020}}</ref> Nathan accepted a full-time teaching appointment at Princeton University in 1972,<ref name="John Nathan 126"/><ref>{{harvnb|Nathan|2008|p=151}}</ref> resigning from the position in 1979.<ref>{{harvnb|Nathan|2008|p=196}}</ref> Nathan is currently Professor Emeritus of Japanese Cultural Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB).<ref name="ucsb" /> He previously served as the Koichi Takashima Professor of Japanese Cultural Studies at UCSB.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.eastasian.ucsb.edu/faculty/nathan.htm |title=EALCS |access-date=2011-01-10 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720075305/http://www.eastasian.ucsb.edu/faculty/nathan.htm |archive-date=2011-07-20 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.independent.com/news/2008/apr/17/ucsb-professors-memoir-japan-america-film-and-lite/|title=UCSB Professor's Memoir on Japan, America, Film, and Literature|website=www.independent.com|language=en|access-date=2018-05-18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190306044633/https://www.independent.com/news/2008/apr/17/ucsb-professors-memoir-japan-america-film-and-lite/|archive-date=2019-03-06|url-status=dead}}</ref>
Nathan's works focus on Japanese culture, Japanese literature, Japanese cinema, the theory and practice of translation,<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/miranda-france-on-translation-translators-literature?|title=Between worlds: in praise of the literary translator|last=France|first=Miranda|date=March 3, 2019|work=Prospect|access-date=3 March 2019}}</ref> and the sociology of business culture. Nathan first met Yukio Mishima in 1963.<ref name="3 Quarks Daily">{{Cite web |last=Marshall |first=Colin |date=26 April 2010 |title=Unceasing fascination with Japan, immersion in literary culture and the pleasures and sorrows of the "thrown" life: Colin Marshall talks to writer, translator, filmmaker and teacher John Nathan |url=https://www.3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2010/04/unceasing-fascination-with-japan-immersion-in-literary-culture-and-the-pleasures-and-sorrows-of-the.html |access-date=30 July 2020 |website=3 Quarks Daily}}</ref> In 1965, at the age of 25, Nathan translated Mishima's ''The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea''. Impressed by Nathan's translation, Mishima requested Nathan sign on as his translator and help Mishima in his quest in being awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Nathan was more interested in translating the work of Kenzaburō Ōe. Nathan ultimately refused to translate Mishima's 1964 novel {{nihongo||絹と明察|Kinu to Meisatsu}}, opting instead to translate Kenzaburō Ōe's 1964 novel {{nihongo||個人的な体験|Kojinteki na Taiken}}. Mishima, who was considered an "arch-rival" of Ōe, abruptly severed ties with Nathan afterwards.<ref name=":0"/><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://movies2.nytimes.com/books/98/10/25/reviews/981025.25morrist.html |title=Raw Material |last=Morris |first=Mark |date=October 25, 1998 |website=The New York Times |access-date=April 14, 2020}}</ref> In 1974, Nathan authored ''Mishima: A Biography'' (1974), a biography of Yukio Mishima.<ref>{{Cite magazine |date=1 November 1974 |title=Mishima: A Biography by John Nathan |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/a/john-nathan-3/mishima-a-biography/ |magazine=Kirkus Reviews |access-date=10 August 2021}}</ref> In 1994, Kenzaburō Ōe was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature and Nathan accompanied him to Stockholm.<ref>{{cite book|author=Grove Press|title=The Grove Press Reader, 1951-2001|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-Zk7K4nchqsC&pg=PA340|year=2001|publisher=Grove Press|isbn=978-0-8021-3780-7|page=340}}</ref>
In 1972, Nathan provided the script for Hiroshi Teshigahara's film ''Summer Soldiers'', about U.S. Army deserters seeking refuge in Japan.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Harper |first=Dan |date=May 2003 |title=Teshigahara, Hiroshi |url=https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2003/great-directors/teshigahara/ |department=Great Directors |magazine=Senses of Cinema |issue=26 |access-date=October 16, 2021}}</ref> He left Princeton in the late 1970s to pursue filmmaking and created three documentaries about the Japanese.<ref name="latimes">{{Cite web |last=McAlpin |first=Heller |date=March 30, 2008 |title=Gained in translation |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2008-mar-30-bk-mcalpin30-story.html |access-date=July 30, 2020 |website=Los Angeles Times}}</ref>
In 1999, Nathan published ''Sony: The Private Life'', a biography of Sony Corporation. The book was the product of 115 interviews conducted by Nathan with current and past key executives of Sony.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Cooper |first=Richard N. |author-link=Richard N. Cooper |title=Sony: The Private Life by John Nathan |url=https://www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/capsule-review/1999-09-01/sony-private-life |magazine=Foreign Affairs |edition=September/October 1999 |access-date=30 July 2020}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://products.kitsapsun.com/archive/1999/10-01/0013_inside_look_at_sony_lacks_excitem.html|title=Inside look at Sony lacks excitement|access-date=2020-07-30|archive-date=2022-07-12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220712155932/https://products.kitsapsun.com/archive/1999/10-01/0013_inside_look_at_sony_lacks_excitem.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> In 2004, he published ''Japan Unbound: A Volatile Nation's Quest for Pride and Purpose'', a scholarly work which provides a historical context to contemporary Japan.<ref>{{Cite web |date=16 February 2004 |title=Nonfiction Book Review: Japan Unbound: A Volatile Nation's Quest for Pride and Purpose by John Nathan |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-618-13894-4 |access-date=30 July 2020 |website=Publishers Weekly}}</ref> In 2008, Nathan published his memoir, ''Living Carelessly in Tokyo and Elsewhere''.<ref>{{Cite web |date=15 December 2007 |title=Living Carelessly in Tokyo and Elsewhere: A Memoir by John Nathan |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/john-nathan/living-carelessly-in-tokyo-and-elsewhere/ |access-date=30 July 2020 |website=Kirkus Reviews}}</ref> In 2013, Nathan published a translation of Natsume Sōseki's unfinished novel ''Light and Dark''.<ref>{{Cite web <!-- Citation bot bypass--> |title=Light and Dark |url=http://cup.columbia.edu/book/light-and-dark/9780231161435 |access-date=30 July 2020 |website=Columbia University Press}}</ref> In 2018, Nathan published a biography of Sōseki titled ''Sōseki: Modern Japan's Greatest Novelist''.<ref>{{Cite web <!-- Citation bot bypass--> |title=Sōseki: Modern Japan's Greatest Novelist |url=http://cup.columbia.edu/book/soseki/9780231171434 |access-date=30 July 2020 |website=Columbia University Press}}</ref>
==Reception== Nathan was described by Damian Flanagan in ''The Japan Times'' as "the one critic of Japanese literature that towers above the rest."<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|url=https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2015/09/05/books/literature-critic-john-nathan-dissects-japans-nobel-prize-laureates/|title=Literature critic John Nathan dissects Japan's Nobel Prize laureates|last=Flanagan|first=Damian|work=The Japan Times|agency=AP|date=September 5, 2015|access-date=2018-05-18|language=en-US}}</ref>
==Personal life== Nathan married Japanese artist Mayumi Oda in 1962,<ref>{{Cite web |date=July 14, 2020 |title=Religion Book Review: Sarasvati's Gift: The Autobiography of Mayumi Oda – Artist, Activist, and Modern Buddhist Revolutionary by Mayumi Oda |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-61180-815-5 |access-date=December 28, 2020 |website=Publishers Weekly}}</ref> in a Shinto wedding ceremony at the Prince Hotel in Akasaka.<ref>{{harvnb|Nathan|2008|p=34}}</ref> They had two sons,<ref>{{harvnb|Nathan|2008|p=115}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Nathan|2008|p=129}}</ref> but separated after several years of marriage.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Houser |first=Preston L. |date=October 2, 2011 |title=Awakening the Goddess Within: An Interview with Mayumi Oda |url=https://www.kyotojournal.org/conversations/awakening-the-goddess/ |access-date=December 1, 2021 |website=Kyoto Journal}}</ref> In 1984, Nathan married Diane Siegelman,<ref>{{harvnb|Nathan|2008|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=poftzRFrMesC&pg=PA220 220]}}</ref> with whom he has a daughter<ref>{{harvnb|Nathan|2008|p=226}}</ref> and a son.<ref>{{harvnb|Nathan|2008|p=234}}</ref>
==Works==
===Translations=== ====Novels==== * {{Cite book |last=Mishima |first=Yukio |title=The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea |publisher=Alfred A. Knopf |year=1965 |isbn=978-0-399-50489-1 |location=New York |author-link=Yukio Mishima}} * {{Cite book |last=Ōe |first=Kenzaburō |title=A Personal Matter |publisher=Grove Press |year=1968 |location=New York |author-link=Kenzaburō Ōe}} * {{Cite book |last=Ōe |first=Kenzaburō |title=Teach Us to Outgrow Our Madness: Four Short Novels |publisher=Grove Press |year=1977 |isbn=978-0-8021-5185-8 |location=New York}} * {{Cite book |last=Ōe |first=Kenzaburō |title=Rouse Up O Young Men of the New Age! |publisher=Grove Press |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-8021-1710-6 |location=New York}} * {{Cite book |last=Sōseki |first=Natsume |title=Light and Dark |publisher=Columbia University Press |year=2013 |isbn=978-0-231-16142-8 |location=New York |author-link=Natsume Sōseki}}
====Short stories==== * {{Cite magazine |last=Ōe |first=Kenzaburō |author-link=Kenzaburō Ōe |year=1965 |title=Lavish Are the Dead |magazine=Japan Quarterly |edition=April–June 1965 |volume=12 |issue=2 |pages=193–211}}<ref name="Wilson2016">{{cite book|author=Michiko N. Wilson|title=The Marginal World of Oe Kenzaburo: A Study of Themes and Techniques: A Study of Themes and Techniques|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-IgYDQAAQBAJ&pg=PT133|date=September 16, 2016|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-1-315-28627-3|page=133}}</ref> * {{Cite magazine |last=Abe |first=Kōbō |author-link=Kōbō Abe |year=1966 |title=Stick |magazine=Japan Quarterly |edition=April–June 1966 |volume=13 |pages=214–217}}<ref name="Kimball2016">{{cite book|author=Arthur G. Kimball|title=Crisis in Identity: and Contemporary Japanese Novels|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OxXQAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT125|date=September 13, 2016|publisher=Tuttle Publishing|isbn=978-1-4629-1208-7|page=125}}</ref> * {{Cite magazine |last=Abe |first=Kōbō |year=1966 |title=Red Cocoon |magazine=Japan Quarterly |edition=April–June 1966 |volume=13 |pages=217–219}}<ref name="Kimball2016"/>
===Books=== * {{Cite book |title=Mishima: A Biography |publisher=Little, Brown |year=1974 |isbn=978-0-316-59844-6 |location=Boston}} * {{Cite book |title=Sony: The Private Life |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Company |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-395-89327-2 |location=Boston}} * {{Cite book |title=Japan Unbound: A Volatile Nation's Quest for Pride and Purpose |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Company |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-618-13894-4 |location=Boston}} * {{Cite book |title=Living Carelessly in Tokyo and Elsewhere: A Memoir |publisher=Free Press |year=2008 |isbn=978-1-4165-5345-8 |location=New York}} * {{Cite book |title=A Bintel Brif: A Novel |publisher=Xlibris |year=2011 |isbn=9781456857493}} * {{Cite book |title=Sōseki: Modern Japan's Greatest Novelist |publisher=Columbia University Press |year=2018 |isbn=978-0-231-17142-7 |location=New York}} * "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. * "Kenzaburō Ōe: 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); music for ''Farm Song'' written by Toru Takemitsu * ''The Colonel Comes to Japan'' (1982, Emmy Award) – A film about KFC in Japan. *''In Search of Excellence'' (1985) * ''Entrepreneurs'' (1986)<ref>{{Cite news |last=Corry |first=John |date=November 5, 1986 |title='ENTRPRENEURS,' DOCUMENTARY ON 13 |page=30 |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1986/11/05/movies/entrpreneurs-documentry-on-13.html |access-date=February 2, 2022}}</ref> * ''Daimyo – The Arts of Feudal Japan'' (1988)
===Screenplay=== * ''Summer Soldiers'' (1972), dir. Hiroshi Teshigahara
== References == {{Reflist}}
== Sources == * {{Cite book |last=Nathan |first=John |title=Living Carelessly in Tokyo and Elsewhere: A Memoir |publisher=Free Press |year=2008 |isbn=978-1-4165-9378-2 |location=New York}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nathan, John}} Category:1940 births Category:Living people Category:Japanese–English translators Category:American Japanologists Category:American male non-fiction writers Category:Scholars of Japanese literature Category:Harvard College alumni Category:Harvard University alumni Category:University of Tokyo alumni Category:Princeton University faculty Category:University of California, Santa Barbara faculty Category:20th-century American translators Category:21st-century American translators Category:People from New York City Category:Writers from Tucson, Arizona Category:American expatriates in Japan Category:American documentary film directors Category:Jewish American non-fiction writers Category:Jewish American film people Category:Jewish scholars Category:Jewish translators Category:Writers from Santa Barbara, California Category:Mass media people from Santa Barbara, California