Edwin McClellan - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Edwin McClellan was a British Japanologist. He was an academic—a scholar, teacher

Teacher

A teacher or schoolteacher is a person who provides education for pupils and students . The role of teacher is often formal and ongoing, carried out at a school or other place of formal education. In many countries, a person who wishes to become a teacher must first obtain specified professional...

, writer, translator

Translation

Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. Whereas interpreting undoubtedly antedates writing, translation began only after the appearance of written literature; there exist partial translations of the Sumerian Epic of...

and interpreter of Japanese literature

Japanese literature

Early works of Japanese literature were heavily influenced by cultural contact with China and Chinese literature, often written in Classical Chinese. Indian literature also had an influence through the diffusion of Buddhism in Japan...

and culture.

Biography

McClellan was born in Kobe

Kobe

, pronounced , is the fifth-largest city in Japan and is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture on the southern side of the main island of Honshū, approximately west of Osaka...

, Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

, in 1925 to a British father, an early representative of Lever Brothers in Japan, and a Japanese mother, Teruko Yokobori. His mother and older brother died when he was two. McClellan and his father were repatriated to Britain

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

in 1942 aboard the Tatsuta Maru

Tatsuta Maru

The , also known as Tatuta Maru after 1938, was a Japanese ocean liner owned by Nippon Yusen Kaisha. The ship was built in 1927-1930 by Mitsubishi Shipbuilding & Engineering Co. at Nagasaki, Japan....

, a passenger liner requisitioned by the Japanese navy (and later torpedoed by a U.S. submarine) to repatriate British nationals from throughout Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...

.

In London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, McClellan taught Japanese at the School of Oriental and African Studies

School of Oriental and African Studies

The School of Oriental and African Studies is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the University of London...

as part of the war effort. At 18, he joined the Royal Air Force

Royal Air Force

The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...

, hoping to become a pilot, but his fluency in Japanese made him more useful to allied intelligence. He spent the years 1944-1947 in Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

, analyzing intercepted Japanese communications.

In 1948, he went to the University of St. Andrews, where he earned a degree in British history and met his future wife, Rachel Elizabeth Pott. At St. Andrews he also met the noted political theorist Russell Kirk

Russell Kirk

Russell Kirk was an American political theorist, moralist, historian, social critic, literary critic, and fiction author known for his influence on 20th century American conservatism. His 1953 book, The Conservative Mind, gave shape to the amorphous post–World War II conservative movement...

, who took him on as his graduate student at Michigan State University

Michigan State University

Michigan State University is a public research university in East Lansing, Michigan, USA. Founded in 1855, it was the pioneer land-grant institution and served as a model for future land-grant colleges in the United States under the 1862 Morrill Act.MSU pioneered the studies of packaging,...

. Two years later, McClellan transferred to the University of Chicago

University of Chicago

The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...

to work with economist and philosopher Friedrich von Hayek. McClellan appealed to Hayek to write his doctoral dissertation on the novelist Natsume Soseki

Natsume Soseki

, born ', is widely considered to be the foremost Japanese novelist of the Meiji period . He is best known for his novels Kokoro, Botchan, I Am a Cat and his unfinished work Light and Darkness. He was also a scholar of British literature and composer of haiku, Chinese-style poetry, and fairy tales...

, whose work was much admired in Japan but unknown in the West. To persuade Hayek of Soseki's importance as a writer and interpreter of Japanese modernity, McClellan translated Soseki's novel "Kokoro" into English. McClellan's definitive translation of "Kokoro" was published in 1957.

Awarded his doctorate

Doctorate

A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder to teach in a specific field, A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder...

in 1957, McClellan taught English at the Chicago until 1959 when he was asked to create a program in Japanese studies, housed in the university's Oriental Institute. He became full professor and founding chair of the Department of Far Eastern Languages and Civilizations in 1965, and later was made the Carl Darling Buck Professor. In 1972, he moved to Yale University

Yale University

Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...

and served as chair of the Department of East Asian Languages and Literature 1973-1982 and 1988-1991. He was appoinited as the Sumitomo Professor of Japanese Studies in 1979, the first chair at a U.S. university to be endowed by a Japanese sponsor. In 1999, McClellan was named a Sterling Professor, Yale's highest professorial honor.

McClellan was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1977. In 1998 he was honored by the Japanese government with the Order of the Rising Sun

Order of the Rising Sun

The is a Japanese order, established in 1875 by Emperor Meiji of Japan. The Order was the first national decoration awarded by the Japanese Government, created on April 10, 1875 by decree of the Council of State. The badge features rays of sunlight from the rising sun...

, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon. His other major awards include the Kikuchi Kan Prize

Kikuchi Kan Prize

The honors achievement in all aspects of Japanese culture. It was named in honor of Kikuchi Kan.The Prize is presented annually by Bungei Shunju literary magazine and the Society for the Advancement of Japanese Culture.-Select list of prizewinners:...

(菊池寛賞) for literature in 1994, the Noma Prize

Noma Prize

The Noma Prizes were established by Shoichi Noma, or in his honor. More than one award is conventionally identified as the Noma Prize.Noma was the former head of Kodansha, the Japanese publishing and bookselling company...

for literary translation in 1995 and the Association for Asian Studies Award for Distinguished Contributions to Asian Studies in 2005.

In addition to his committee work at Chicago and Yale, McClellan served on the Board of the Council for International Exchange of Scholars

Council for International Exchange of Scholars

For over 60 years, the Council for International Exchange of Scholars has helped administer the Fulbright Scholar Program, the U.S. government's flagship academic exchange effort, on behalf of the United States Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs...

(CIES), the American Advisory Committee of the Japan Foundation

Japan Foundation

The was established in 1972 by an Act of the Japanese Diet as a special legal entity to undertake international dissemination of Japanese culture, and became an independent administrative institution under the jurisdiction of the Foreign Ministry of Japan on 1 October 2003 under the "Independent...

, the American Oriental Society

American Oriental Society

The American Oriental Society was chartered under the laws of Massachusetts on September 7, 1842. It is one of the oldest learned societies in America, and is the oldest devoted to a particular field of scholarship....

, the National Endowment for the Humanities

National Endowment for the Humanities

The National Endowment for the Humanities is an independent federal agency of the United States established by the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965 dedicated to supporting research, education, preservation, and public programs in the humanities. The NEH is located at...

(NEH), the editorial board of the Journal of Japanese Studies

Journal of Japanese Studies

The Journal of Japanese Studies is the most influential journal dealing with research on Japan in the United States. It is a multidisciplinary forum for communicating new information, new interpretations, and recent research results concerning Japan to the English-reading world...

, and visiting committees in East Asian studies at Harvard and Princeton

Princeton University

Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....

.

His publications include translations of novels by Natsume Soseki (in addition to "Kokoro," "Grass on the Wayside") and Shiga Naoya ("A Dark Night's Passing"); the translation of a memoir by Yoshikawa Eiji; a book of essays, "Two Japanese Novelists: Soseki and Toson"; and a biography of 19th-century Japanese "bluestocking" Shibue Io, "Woman in a Crested Kimono."

A festschrift published in his honor by the University of Michigan Center for Japanese Studies, notes: "Among McClellan's students his seminars have become lore. ... The depth and breadth of readings these seminars required were a revolution in pedagogy when McClellan first began them over 20 years ago; and they continue to represent an ideal of graduate training in the field. ... He taught his students to ask the most fundamental questions about the literary imagination: how language functions within the history of literary forms and in the context of society, history, politics and the existential yearnings of a singular imagination."

McClellan remained a British citizen until his death. His wife, Rachel, died in January of 2009, He is succeeded by a son, Andrew, of Belmont, Massachusetts; a daughter, Sarah, of Somerville, Massachusetts; and five grandsons.

Festschrift

A festschrift was published in his honor by the University of Michigan Center for Japanese Studies. The 16 critical essays and selected modern period translations were compiled to demonstrate the high standards set by Professor McClellan. The contributors' work was intended to acknowledge the esteem McClellan earned as teacher and mentor.

Alan Tansman and Dennis Washburn. (1997). Studies in Modern Japanese Literature: Essays and Translations in Honor of Edwin McClellan. Ann Arbor: Center for Japanese Studies, University of Michigan. ISBN 0-9395-1284-X (cloth)

The McClellan Visiting Fellowship in Japanese Studies at Yale was inaugurated in 2000 by the Council on East Asian Studies in honor of Edwin McClellan, who was the Sterling Professor Emeritus of Japanese Literature.

Honors and awards

1977 -- American Academy of Arts and Sciences
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...

.
1994 -- Kikuchi Kan Prize
Kikuchi Kan Prize
The honors achievement in all aspects of Japanese culture. It was named in honor of Kikuchi Kan.The Prize is presented annually by Bungei Shunju literary magazine and the Society for the Advancement of Japanese Culture.-Select list of prizewinners:...
1995 -- Noma Prize
Noma Prize
The Noma Prizes were established by Shoichi Noma, or in his honor. More than one award is conventionally identified as the Noma Prize.Noma was the former head of Kodansha, the Japanese publishing and bookselling company...

, Literary Translation Prize
1998 -- Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon
Order of the Rising Sun
The is a Japanese order, established in 1875 by Emperor Meiji of Japan. The Order was the first national decoration awarded by the Japanese Government, created on April 10, 1875 by decree of the Council of State. The badge features rays of sunlight from the rising sun...

, 1998.
2005 -- * Association for Asian Studies
Association for Asian Studies
The Association for Asian Studies is a U.S. society focused on facilitating contact and information exchange among scholars of Asian fields. It is the self-proclaimed largest society of its kind. The Association consists of eminent Asianists, and is a non-profit organization...

(AAS), Award for Distinguished Contributions to Asian Studies

Published work

1969 -- Two Japanese Novelists: Soseki and Toson
Shimazaki Toson
is the pen-name of Shimazaki Haruki, a Japanese author, active in the Meiji, Taishō and early Shōwa periods of Japan. He began his career as a romantic poet, but went on to establish himself as a major proponent of naturalism in Japanese fiction.-Early life:...

. Chicago: University of Chicago Press
University of Chicago Press
The University of Chicago Press is the largest university press in the United States. It is operated by the University of Chicago and publishes a wide variety of academic titles, including The Chicago Manual of Style, dozens of academic journals, including Critical Inquiry, and a wide array of...

. 10-ISBN 0-2265-5652-2 13-ISBN 978-0-2265-5652-9 (cloth)
- _____. (1971) Tokyo: Tuttle Publishing
  Tuttle Publishing
  Tuttle Publishing, originally the Charles E. Tuttle Company, is a book publishing company that includes Tuttle, Periplus Editions, and Journey Editions...
  
  . 10-ISBN 0-8048-3340-0 13-ISBN 978-0-8048-3340-0 (paper)
1985 -- Woman in the Crested Kimono : The Life of Shibue Io and Her Family Drawn from Mori Ogai
Mori Ogai
was a Japanese physician, translator, novelist and poet. is considered his major work.- Early life :Mori was born as Mori Rintarō in Tsuwano, Iwami province . His family were hereditary physicians to the daimyō of the Tsuwano Domain...

's 'Shibue Chusai. New Haven: Yale University Press
Yale University Press
Yale University Press is a book publisher founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day. It became an official department of Yale University in 1961, but remains financially and operationally autonomous....

. 10-ISBN 0-3000-4618-9 13-ISBN 978-0-3000-4618-2

Translations

Natsume Sōseki
Natsume Soseki
, born ', is widely considered to be the foremost Japanese novelist of the Meiji period . He is best known for his novels Kokoro, Botchan, I Am a Cat and his unfinished work Light and Darkness. He was also a scholar of British literature and composer of haiku, Chinese-style poetry, and fairy tales...

. (1957). Kokoro. Chicago: Regnery Gateway. 10-ISBN 0-8952-6715-2
- _____. (1957). Kokoro... 10-ISBN 0-8092-6095-6; 13-ISBN 978-0-8092-6095-9 (cloth)
- _____. (1967). Kokoro... 10-ISBN 0-8952-6951-1; 13-ISBN 978-08952-6951-5 (paper)
- _____. (1992). Kokoro. Lanham, Maryland: National Book Network. ISBN 0-8191-8248-6 (cloth)
- _____. (1996). Kokoro... ISBN 0-8952-6715-2; 13-ISBN 978-0-8952-6715-3
- _____. (2002). Kokoro... ISBN 1-5764-6585-3
- _____. (2006). Kokoro... ISBN 0-4864-5139-9.
- _____. (2007). Kokoro. London: Peter Owen Ltd. 10-ISBN 0-7206-1297-7; 13-ISBN 978-0-7206-1297-4 (paper)

Natsume Sōseki. (1969). Grass on the Wayside. Chicago: University of Chicago Press
University of Chicago Press
The University of Chicago Press is the largest university press in the United States. It is operated by the University of Chicago and publishes a wide variety of academic titles, including The Chicago Manual of Style, dozens of academic journals, including Critical Inquiry, and a wide array of...

. 10-ISBN 0-2267-6831-7; 13-ISBN 978-0-2267-6831-1 (cloth)
- _____. (1990). Grass on the Wayside. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, Center for Japanese Studies. 10-ISBN 0-9395-1245-9; 13-ISBN 978-0-9395-1245-4 (paper)

Shiga Naoya
Shiga Naoya
was a Japanese novelist and short story writer active during the Taishō and Showa periods of Japan.-Early life:Shiga was born in Ishinomaki city, Miyagi prefecture. His father, the son of a samurai, was a banker. The family moved to Tokyo when Shiga was three, to live with his grandparents, who...

. (1976) A Dark Night's Passing
A Dark Night's Passing
A Dark Night's Passing is the only full-length novel by Japanese writer Shiga Naoya. It was written in serialized form and published in Kaizo in between 1921 and 1937...

. Tokyo: Kodansha
Kodansha
, the largest Japanese publisher, produces the manga magazines Nakayoshi, Afternoon, Evening, and Weekly Shonen Magazine, as well as more literary magazines such as Gunzō, Shūkan Gendai, and the Japanese dictionary Nihongo Daijiten. The company has its headquarters in Bunkyō, Tokyo...

. 10-ISBN 0-8701-1279-1; 13-ISBN 978-0-8701-1279-9 (cloth) and 10-ISBN 0-8701-1362-3; 13-ISBN 978-0-8701-1362-8

Yoshikawa
Eiji Yoshikawa
was a Japanese historical novelist, probably one of the best and most famous authors in the genre. Among his most well-known novels, most are revisions of past works. He was mainly influenced by classics such as The Tale of the Heike, Tale of Genji, Outlaws of the Marsh, and Romance of the Three...

Eiji. (1993). Fragments of a Past: A Memoir. Tokyo: Kodansha. 10-ISBN 4-7700-1732-4; 13-ISBN 978-4-7700-1732-1 (cloth) and 10-ISBN 4-7700-2064-3; 13-ISBN 978-4-7700-2064-2 (paper)

External links

Hirotsugu Aida. The Soseki Connection: Edwin McClellan, Friedrich Hayek, and Jun Eto," Tokyo Foundation. 2007
"McClellan Named Sterling Professor of Japanese," Yale Office of Public Affairs. February 3, 1999.
"In Memoriam: Edwin McClellan, Noted for Translations of Japanese Literature," Yale Office of Public Affairs. May 19, 2009.