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Introduction to the Special Issue in Honor of Kyoko Selden: Japan in Translation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2025

Alisa Freedman
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This issue of The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus is the first of three special online issues that can be read in conjunction with a 2015 special issue of the Review of Japanese Culture and Society (Volume XXVII). Together the issues offer examples of Kyoko Selden's literary translations and writings that span Japanese history, literature, and multiple genres. The two journals were venues through which Kyoko shared much of her work. These poems, stories, novellas, essays, plays, memoirs, and biographies—drawn from her more than twenty books and fifty short pieces—exemplify her belief in the humanizing power of literature and art, concern for the human toll of historical events, and gentle humor. They reveal new dimensions of established authors while ensuring that marginalized voices are heard. The selections highlight Kyoko's emphasis on women writers and her interlocking themes: war and peace, classical literature and art, Ainu traditions, Okinawan literature, atomic cataclysm, music, education, and childhood, among others. We have prioritized texts that have not been published and those that were first circulated in private venues; included are a few of her many contributions to the Asia Pacific Journal and Japan Focus. We have completed translations that Kyoko did not have a chance to finish before her passing in January 2013.

Type
Research Article
Information
Asia-Pacific Journal , Volume 14 , Issue 14 , July 2016 , e1
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2016

References

Notes

1 The 2015 special issue (Volume XXVII) of the Review of Japanese Culture and Society, published in English by the Jōsai International Center for the Promotion of Art and Science at Jōsai University, includes a complete translation of Osaki Midori's novella Wanderings in the Realm of the Seventh Sense and Uehara Noboru's short story “Our Gang Age,” 1970), among other literary works not reprinted here, and writings by Noriko Mizuta, Brett de Bary, Arthur Groos, and Akira Iriye. Interspersed are Kyoko's photographs, artworks, and original poems, providing glimpses of her rich personal life and artistic range and sensibility.

2 The published texts included here have been revised and edited for this special issue.

3 In these special issues, some translators and authors have chosen to transcribe Chinese words in Wade-Giles, while others have used Pinyin. We have maintained the use of both romanization systems as the translators have suggested.