Career
He was a specialist in the Tale of Genji, and his most recent work has been editing a three-volume collection of academic essays about the novel. His doctoral degree was from the University of California, Berkeley. His 1977 doctoral thesis, Sagoromo monogatari: a study and partial translation, has been called "one of the most important contributions to the study of classical Japanese narrative to have emerged in the last twenty years " by Richard Bowring of the University of Cambridge.
He died of natural causes on 4 April 2012 in Monmouth Junction, New Jersey.
