Thomas J. Harper
Thomas J. Harper, a distinguished scholar of Japanese literature who began his teaching career at Yale, died on Feb. 16 at his home in Tokyo. He was 91.
Harper, known to his many students and friends as Tom, spent his early years as an instructor and then assistant professor at Yale, before going on to appointments at The Australian National University, where he taught from 1976 to 1988, and at Leiden University in the Netherlands, from which he retired in 1999.
Harper’s doctoral dissertation, a study of Motoori Norinaga’s “Genji monogatari tama no ogushi,” remains a landmark of scholarship and translation, as is his widely read translation of Tanizaki Jun’ichirō’s “In’ei raisan” (“In Praise of Shadows.”)
Other major publications include “Reading the Tale of Genji: Sources from the First Millennium” (ed., with Haruo Shirane) and “The True Story of the Vendetta of the 47 Rōnin from Akō,” along with many essays, translations, and reviews. His translation of Fujisawa Shūhei’s historical novel “Semishigure” was published in March, 2025.
Edward Kamens ’74, ’82 Ph.D., the Sumitomo Professor of Japanese Literature, Emeritus in Yale’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, a former student of Harper’s, lauded him as a “model of scholarly devotion to his field, to which he gave so much through his rigorously researched publications and his erudite translations of works in multiple genres from multiple periods.”
Kamens also remembered Harper as “an inspiring teacher, from the time I took his year-long survey course as a Yale freshman during his first year at the university, in 1970, to well beyond his retirement.”
Harper and his wife Gaye, who survives him, had homes in both Tokyo and Sydney. According to his wishes, there will be no memorial service. His ashes will be scattered at a future date in Sydney Harbor.
Kamens, speaking for himself and for many former students and colleagues, praised the influence of his former teacher. “His mentoring will continue to have far-reaching impact across several generations of Japan scholars,” Kamens said.
