is known as the "father of Japanese studies" at Columbia University

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

. He was directly responsible for developing the Japanese language

Japanese language

is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...

 and 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...

 collection at Columbia's library. Prominent among the former-students who credit his influence as formative is Donald Keene

Donald Keene

Donald Lawrence Keene is a Japanologist, scholar, teacher, writer, translator and interpreter of Japanese literature and culture. Keene was University Professor Emeritus and Shincho Professor Emeritus of Japanese Literature at Columbia University, where he taught for over fifty years...

, who has himself become over time the current Dean of Japanese studies in the United States.

Keene's own perspective on Tsunoda was expressed in a lecture given at Waseda University

Waseda University

, abbreviated as , is one of the most prestigious private universities in Japan and Asia. Its main campuses are located in the northern part of Shinjuku, Tokyo. Founded in 1882 as Tokyo Senmon Gakko, the institution was renamed "Waseda University" in 1902. It is known for its liberal climate...

 in 1994:

"His vocation was teaching, not writing. His joy as a teacher lay in communicating knowledge directly and enthusiastically to his students. ... As one of his students, I feel it regrettable that Prof. Tsunoda is not known just because he did not publish anything."

Select works

• Tsunoda, Ryusaku, William Theodore de Bary and Donald Keene. (1958). Sources of Japanese Tradition, Vols. I-II. New York: Columbia University Press
  Columbia University Press
  Columbia University Press is a university press based in New York City, and affiliated with Columbia University. It is currently directed by James D. Jordan and publishes titles in the humanities and sciences, including the fields of literary and cultural studies, history, social work, sociology,...
  
  .
• Tsunoda, Ryusaku and L. Carrington Goodrich. (1951). Japan in the Chinese Dynastic Histories. New York: Perkins Asiatic Monographs.

External links

• Columbia University: "Founder of Japanese Studies and the Japanese Collection at Columbia University Honored With Event and Exhibition," 2008.
• Columbia University: C.V. Starr East Asian Library, the Japanese Collection
• Waseda University: Tsunoda Ryūsaku -- his life as a bridge between Japan and America," 2008.