J. Thomas Rimer (born 2 March 1933) is an American scholar of Japanese literature and drama. He is a Professor Emeritus of Japanese Literature, Theatre, and Art at the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the univers ...

. He has served as the chief of the Asian Division of the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The libra ...

. Rimer has written about Classical Japanese literature, as well as modern Japanese drama, and has translated several works. He has written several works for a popular audience, and has been credited with making Japanese drama more accessible to Americans. Rimer earned a PhD in Japanese Literature from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

in 1971. Rimer and co-author

Jonathan Chaves Jonathan Chaves (born June 8, 1943), B.A. Brooklyn College, 1965; M.A. Columbia University, 1966; PhD Columbia University, 1971, is Professor of Chinese Language and Literature at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. He is a tran ...

received the Japan–U.S. Friendship Commission Prize for the Translation of Japanese Literature in 1998 for their translation of the

Wakan rōeishū The is an anthology of Chinese poems (Jp. ''kanshi ''漢詩) and 31-syllable Japanese waka (Jp. ''tanka'' 短歌) for singing to fixed melodies (the melodies are now extinct). The text was compiled by Fujiwara no Kintō ca. 1013. It contains ...

titled ''Japanese and Chinese Poems to Sing: The Wakan Roei-shu''. Rimer is a son-in-law of

Paul Mus Paul Mus (1902–1969) was a French writer and scholar. His studies focused on Viet Nam and other South-East Asian cultures. He was born in Bourges to an academic family, and grew up in northern Viet Nam (Tonkin). In 1907 his father opened the Col ...

(1902-1969), a Southeast Asia and Buddhism expert.

References

Living people American translators University of Pittsburgh faculty American Japanologists 1933 births Scholars of Japanese literature Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni {{US-academic-bio-stub