Japanologist
He also wrote widely on Japan, including a two-volume history of Tokyo, Low City, High City: Tokyo from Edo to the Earthquake (1983); Kafu the Scribbler (1965); and Tokyo Rising: The City Since the Great Earthquake (1990).
Born in Castle Rock, Colorado, he studied the Japanese language in 1942 at the University of Colorado at Boulder, with colleague Donald Keene. He studied Japanese literature at Harvard University and the University of Tokyo. He taught at Sophia University in Tokyo, at Stanford University (1962-1966), the University of Michigan (1966-1977), and Columbia (1977-1985) until his retirement in 1985. In his academic career, he is also credited with being a teacher for his peers. In an 2004 interview, Donald Richie explained:
| “ | It didn’t occur to me that there were things beside linear, rational, Socratic thought. In the West, it is an insult is to say, "But that’s illogical!' Here, if you want to devastate a person, tell him he’s ronri-teki -– too logical. One of the main ways of communication in Japan is through associative thought. In Japan, something that is too logical is stiff, unnatural, stilted. | ” |
Seidensticker learned how not to be ronri-teki.
He published his autobiographical observations in Tokyo Central: A Memoir in 2001. A biography and bibliography are included in a commemorative work created by those whose lives he affected, New Leaves: Studies and Translations of Japanese Literature in Honor of Edward Seidensticker (1993).
After retirement, he divided his time between Honolulu and Tokyo, which he described as "the world's most consistently interesting city." His last hospitalization was caused by cranial injuries sustained during a walk along Ueno Park's Shinobazu Pond, very near his home. Following four months in a coma, he died at age 86 in Tokyo.
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