Australian translator and academic Dr Royall Tyler has been named as this year’s recipient of the prestigious Japan Foundation Award. The award, which recognises people who have made outstanding contributions and lasting achievements in the promotion of international cultural understanding, has been presented annually since 1973. Dr Tyler is only the second Australian to be presented with the award and the first in more than two decades, after former Australian National University Chancellor Sir John Grenfell Crawford, who was a recipient in 1984. Dr Tyler was selected for his contributions to the understanding of Japanese literature and culture overseas, through his long-term research, teaching and translation. He has produced numerous highly-acclaimed translations of Noh plays, introducing non- Japanese audiences to this classical form of Japanese musical drama. His 1987 publication Japanese Tales, an anthology of mediaeval setsuwa stories, has also been widely appreciated. In 2001, Dr Tyler produced a painstaking translation of the entire Tale of Genji; a considerable task which took eight years to complete. The Tale of Genji, attributed to 11th century author Murasaki Shikibu, is widely acclaimed as one of the great works of Japanese literature of the Heian Period, and has been referred to as the world’s first classical novel. Dr Tyler’s English translation includes detailed commentary and illustrations, and is replete with footnotes to facilitate an understanding of the story. Although his is not the first English language representation of Shikibu’s famous literary classic, Dr Tyler’s translation brilliantly presents a faithful rendition of the original text. His translation has previously been awarded the Japan-US Friendship Commission Translation Prize in 2001. Dr Tyler received his award at a ceremony in Tokyo last October. In an entertaining acceptance speech, he jocularly thanked Murasaki Shikibu for having penned the original Japanese text, pointing out that had she not done so he would not have been able to translate it, and would not have won the award. While in Tokyo, Dr Tyler gave a lecture at Tokyo University, where he discussed various aspects of Shikibu’s original text and his own efforts to translate it over almost a decade. He was also received by HIH The Emperor at a special reception on 4 October. Dr Tyler is a specialist in Japanese history and literature, and taught at Ohio State University, the University of Wisconsin at Madison and the University of Oslo before taking up a position at the Australian National University in 1990. From 1992 until his retirement in 2000, he worked as a Reader in the Japan Centre, Faculty of Asian Studies. Dr Tyler currently lectures at symposiums and seminars around the world.       Privacy & Copyright © The Japan Foundation, Sydney