Thomas J. Harper

[Kamens, Edward]

Professor Harper Thomas J. Harper, known to his many students and friends as Tom, died on February 16, 2025 at home in Tokyo. His wife of more than 40 years, Gaye Rowley, was at his side. Professor Harper received his Ph.D. in Japanese literature from the University of Michigan in 1971. He began his teaching career at Yale University in 1970 and went on to appointments at The Australian National University (1976-1988) and at Leiden University, 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 is scheduled for publication in March, 2025.

Tom and Gaye had homes in both Tokyo and Sydney. Following his wishes, there will be no memorial service; his ashes will be scattered, at a future date, in Sydney Harbor, as he requested.

Edward Kamens

Sumitomo Professor Emeritus of Japanese Studies

Yale University