Edwin Cranston

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Edwin Augustus Cranston (1932–2021) was a Professor of Japanese literature in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at Harvard University. His primary research interest was the classical literature of Japan, especially traditional poetic forms. He received the Japan–U.S. Friendship Commission Prize for the Translation of Japanese Literature in 1992 for his translation A Waka Anthology: The Gem-Glistening Cup. Vol I.^[1]

History

Born on October 18, 1932,

His dissertation, a translation of and commentary on the Izumi Shikibu diary, was published in 1969 in the Harvard-Yenching Monograph series as The Izumi Shikibu Diary: A Romance of the Heian Court and remains the authoritative English version.^[6]

In 1993, Stanford University Press released the first of his proposed six-volume anthology of classical Japanese poetry. Titled A Waka Anthology, Volume One: The Gem-Glistening Cup,^[7] it was awarded a prize^[8] by the Japan-United States Friendship Commission^[9] and followed in 2006 by A Waka Anthology, Volume Two: Grasses of Remembrance.^[10] In 2009, he was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon, by the government of Japan.^[11]

Cranston has also translated the work of poet Mizuno Ruriko.

References