Kazuo Ueda (linguist)

Kazuo Ueda
上田和夫
Ueda in 1971
Born1943 (age 82–83)
Osaka, Japan
SpouseKazuko Ueda
Academic background
Education
Academic work
DisciplineYiddishist
Institutions
Notable works
  • "Idisshugo bunpoo gairyaku" (1970)
  • Idisshugo bunpoo nyuumon / Arajnfir in der jidišer gramatik (1985)
  • Idisshugo Jiten (2010)

Kazuo Ueda (Japanese: 上田和夫, Hepburn: Ueda Kazuo; born 1943) is a Japanese linguist and scholar. He is Japan's leading Yiddishist.

Ueda graduated from Kōchi University and received a master's degree in German literature from the University of Tokyo. While studying German-language Jewish writer Franz Kafka in graduate school, he learned of Yiddish. He mostly self-taught himself Yiddish, with some aid from Japan's limited Jewish community and multiple visits to Israel. One of two scholars to introduce the study of Yiddish to Japan, Ueda published the first Japanese examination of Yiddish grammar and literature in 1970, the first Japanese book on Yiddish in 1985, and the first Japanese dictionary on Yiddish in 2010. His Yiddish dictionary was the first in a non-European language, besides Hebrew. Beginning in 1969 and until he retired in 2012, Ueda was a German studies professor at Ehime, Kōchi, and Fukuoka University.

Biography

Franz Kafka

Kazuo Ueda was born in 1943 in Osaka and grew up in the Kyoto Prefecture.[1][2] He graduated from Kōchi University.[2] He then received a master's degree in German literature from the University of Tokyo.[2] While in graduate school, he learned of Yiddish while studying German-language Jewish writer Franz Kafka, with sources differing on whether it was from reading his diaries or literature,[3][4] or from a lecturer, Hajime Yamashita,[5] offhandedly mentioning that Kafka was interested in Yiddish theater.[6] He began studying Biblical Hebrew in 1967 while attending the university and then he spent four years learning Modern Hebrew at the Jewish Community of Japan. He often came to Japan's only synagogue for assistance[4] but mostly taught himself, by reading Yiddish newspapers and literature.[3] Marvin Tokayer, then the only rabbi in Japan, recalled that Ueda called him from a payphone in 1969 and, after being surprised that he knew Yiddish, Tokayer asked to meet with him. He recalled that Ueda often asked him questions about Yiddish vocabulary and listened to tapes of him singing Yiddish lullabies, with Tokayer saying that he had taught himself a "very respectable" amount of Yiddish.[6] Ueda credits his interest in Yiddish to its uniqueness and because reading it felt like solving a puzzle.[3][5]

In July 1971, Ueda came to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem on a one-year grant from the Israeli government to learn more about Yiddish. He focused on his Hebrew by attending an ulpan given by the university and also attended Yiddish clubs in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Prior to arriving, Ueda had taught at the German department of Ehime University in Matsuyama for two years.[4] Ueda visited Israel multiple times,[3] including another stay at the Hebrew University from 1983 to 1984,[1] and for a time he lived in the Yiddish-speaking Haredi neighborhood Mea Shearim.[6] He also studied at the Uriel Weinreich summer course at Columbia University in 1975.[1]

Ueda was one of two scholars to introduce the study of Yiddish to Japan, alongside linguist Katsuhiko Tanaka,[7] who learned Yiddish c. 1970 while in Bonn.[5] Ueda is Japan's leading Yiddishist[3][6] and was the only Japanese extensively working on Yiddish linguistics for some time.[8] Before Ueda began his work, Yiddish's presence in Japan was limited to translations of translations of Yiddish literature.[a] Ueda's first work on Yiddish, a 1970[b] journal article on Yiddish grammar, was the first Japanese examination of Yiddish grammar and literature.[5] For a time Ueda was a professor of German at Kōchi University.[6][5] His other works include a bilingual glossary, an introduction to Yiddish culture, and a chrestomathy.[6]

Ueda's Idisshugo bunpoo nyuumon / Arajnfir in der jidišer gramatik, a primer on Yiddish grammar, was published by Daigaku Syorin in 1985. It was the first Japanese book on Yiddish.[11][8][12] It is 267 pages long and includes standard features of grammar books, an introduction to the history of Yiddish, and brief directions to resources and institutions which focus on Yiddish. The book follows YIVO's 1926 orthography while noting Soviet practices. It does not include reader exercises. Stanley Dubinsky and Paul Wexler reviewed it as valuable and competent. They identified its target audience as Japanese specialists in German, the same as Ueda's background, while noting that it does not compare the two as in Ueda's prior work and that it did account for the language's complexity for learners. They had minor criticisms of its discussion of Yiddish grammar sometimes being unnecessarily vague, not in-depth enough, and forgetting exceptions or minor elements; for instance, it transliterates but never defines rabbi and rebbe.[8] While crediting its history of Yiddish for being the first in Japanese, they found that it contained some inaccuracies and outdated theories. Masato Satoo, Daigaku Syorin's president, stated that the company would continue to publish works on Yiddish in an effort to eliminate what he called a Japanese prejudice towards only learning "'great' Western European languages". The book had 2,000 copies printed, which Ueda credited to Japanese interest in learning foreign languages.[5]

Ueda also worked extensively on compiling and translating into German four Yiddish plays that Kafka saw and commented on in his diary.[13][14] This effort made the plays widely accessible.[15] His works often compared Yiddish and German. Ueda attributed an increased interest in Yiddish among Japanese to its significance in Jewish American literature.[8] The Japanese Association for Yiddish Studies was founded in 1988 by Ueda, comparative literature professor Masahiko Nishi, and German assistant professor Kurahei Ogino, and in 1992 it had about 20 members.[5][12] Ueda professed an interest in teaching a course on Yiddish.[12][1] Ueda also coauthored two Japanese-Yiddish phrasebooks with American Yiddishist Troim Katz Handler. Handler recalled that she had never spoke or met with Ueda and that she only communicated with him through her Yiddish typewriter.[16] Ueda later lived on Kyushu and was a professor at the German department of Fukuoka University.[3][6] Ueda also worked on Judeo-Spanish, writing two works on it after compiling a vocabulary list of Aki Yerushalayim; he said this effort was part of his broader work on Jewish languages.[17]

Cover of the dictionary
The entry for the non-diacritical alef, the first letter in the Yiddish alphabet.

Ueda compiled and edited the unidirectional Japanese-Yiddish dictionary Idisshugo Jiten,[c] which was published by Daigaku Syorin in 2010.[6] It was the first of its kind and the first Yiddish dictionary in a non-European language, besides Hebrew. Ueda considers it his magnum opus.[3] It is 1,302 pages long and has over 28,000 entries. He was aided by Yiddish scholars Holger Nath and Boris Kotlerman. Kotlerman said that he worked on thousands of words, particularly Slavisms, and that Nath focused on Germanisms, with Ueda also being aided by Japanese assistants fluent in Russian and English.[6] Linguist Ross Perlin said that translating Yiddish and Japanese must have been challenging and called it "serious but accessible". He found the dictionary's merits to include the use of YIVO's orthography and friendly transliteration-style, appropriate examples largely taken from Sovetish Heymland, and markings for words that are Slavisms, Germanisms, and Hebraisms. Perlin also applauded the use of entries from Uriel Weinreich's well-regarded Yiddish dictionary, while noting that Ueda's work had surpassed Weinreich's in length.[6]

As of 2012, the dictionary cost ¥60,000, which was then over $770. Japanese Yiddishist Tsvi Sadan praised the dictionary, except for its price, and Tokayer joked that he would buy it used. The publisher declined to provide details on its sales but said they were likely tiny, with the book's target audience of Japanese Yiddishists not being large.[3][6] Ueda said he did not expect the dictionary to cause an increase in Yiddish learners and wrote the dictionary because he wanted to learn more.[3] Ueda said that he felt the dictionary was cheap considering that it took 20 years of labor and associated health costs. His wife Kazuko said that he worked on it every day after breakfast. Before it was completed, he began showing signs of Parkinson's disease. Kazuko blamed his work on the dictionary for aggravating it, and Ueda's doctors said it may have shortened his life. In March 2012, he retired from Fukuoka University, and as of April 2012, he struggled to speak or walk.[3] In an interview with NPR, Ueda said that he did not regret working on the dictionary, which he pats before going to bed.[3]

Legacy

Jack Halpern, a Yiddish-speaking linguist living in Japan, praised Ueda but described the reaction of Jews who learn of his work as befuddlement,[3] and in 1971 Ueda recalled that many Israelis he met were surprised about his interest in Yiddish.[4] He later recalled that he was disappointed in this reaction but had come to understand why many Israelis wanted to avoid literature which repeatedly describes "the tragic state of the Jews".[1] In 2012, Sadan estimated that there were less than 20 Japanese fluent in Yiddish, while noting that a larger number had some fluency.[6] Rebecca White of the Yiddish Book Center noted that Ueda's works were the most notable Japanese works on Yiddish culture. At the time she wrote, the center had not been able to acquire his dictionary but it had acquired his 1970 journal article on Yiddish grammar, his 1985 primer on Yiddish grammar, and a parallel text book for Japanese learners which included three short stories by Yiddish writers Avrom Reyzen, Y. L. Peretz, and Sholem Aleichem.[18] Japanese Yiddish scholar Yuu Nishimura credited Ueda's achievements, alongside those of Nishi and the research of others, with making Yiddish more accessible in Japan and spurring an increased interest in Jewish history.[7]

Partial bibliography

The following partial bibliography is not complete. It includes all of Ueda's works on Yiddish published before 1990,[9] and some other works.

Books

  • Ueda, Kazuo (1985). Idisshugo bunpoo nyuumon / Arajnfir in der jidišer gramatik [Yiddish Grammar Primer]. Tokyo: Daigaku Syorin.
  • — (1993). Idisshugo kiso 6000 go [6000 Yiddish Words for Daily Life]. Tokyo: Daigaku Syorin.[19]
  • — (1995). Idisshugo dokuhon [Yiddish Chrestomathy]. Tokyo: Daigaku Syorin. ISBN 4-475-01815-3[20]
  • —; Handler, Troim Katz (1995). Idisshugo kaiwa renshuu-choo [Conversations: Japanese-English-Yiddish]. Tokyo: Daigaku Syorin. ISBN 4-475-01298-8[20]
  • — (1999). [1500 Basic Words of Judeo-Spanish]. Tokyo: Daigaku Syorin.[17]
  • —; Handler, Troim Katz (2000). [Dialogues for Students of Yiddish in Japan].[21]
  • — (2002). [Collection of Vocabulary of Judeo-Spanish]. Fukuoka University.[17]
  • —; Nath, Holger; Kotlerman, Boris (2010). Idisshugo Jiten [Yiddish-Japanese Dictionary]. Tokyo: Daigaku Syorin. ISBN 978-4-475-00162-5.

Journal articles and chapters

  • Ueda, Kazuo (February 1970). "Idisshugo bunpoo gairyaku" [Yiddish Grammar in Brief]. Ehime Daigaku Kyokobu kiyo [Memoirs of the Faculty of General Education, Ehime University] (2). Matsuyama: 111–151
  • — (1970). "Idisshugo gairyaku" [Yiddish in Brief]. Yudaya isuraeru kenkyuu [Study of Judaism and Israel] (7). Tokyo: 26–31
  • — (1970). "Iddishugo ni okeru haigo, nooto" [Background of Yiddish, Notes]. Doitsu bungaku ronshuu [German Literature Essay Collection] (4). Hirsohima: 34–41
  • — (1973). "Yudayago" [Jewish language]. Encyclopaedia Britannica (Japanese edition) (19). Tokyo: 705–707
  • — (1980). "Idisshugo to doitsugo" [Yiddish and German]. Doitsu bungaku [German Literature] (64). Tokyo: 117–125
  • — (1981). "Idisshugo to sono bungaku" [Yiddish and its literature]. Ehime doitsu bungaku [German Literature, Ehime] (4). Matsuyama: 13–26
  • — (1981). "Zoku. Idisshugo to doitsogu" [Yiddish and German Genus]. Doitsu bungaku ronshuu [German Literature Essay Collection] (14). Okayama: 30–42
  • — (1982). "Franz Kafka und die jiddische Literatur I" [Franz Kafka and Yiddish Literature I]. Koochi daigaku gakujutsu kenkyuu hookoku [Kōchi University Academic Research Reports] (31). 189–222
  • — (1983). "Franz Kafka und die jiddische Literatur II" [Franz Kafka and Yiddish Literature II]. Koochi daigaku gakujutsu kenkyuu hookoku [Kōchi University Academic Research Reports] (32). 1–33
  • — (1985). "Idisshugo ni okeru jishoo no icchi". Doitsu gogaku kenkyuu [Study of German Linguistics] (1). Tokyo: 245–271
  • — (1988). Kamei, T.; Koono, R.; Chino, E. (eds.). "Idisshugo" [Yiddish]. Sanseidoo gengogaku daijiten [Sanseido Encyclopedia of Linguistics] (4). Tokyo: 615–633
  • — (1988). "Kafkas Amerika-Roman und zwei jiddische Gedichte" [Kafka's novel Amerika and two Yiddish poems]. Koochi daigaku gakujutsu kenkyuu hookoku [Kōchi University Academic Research Reports] (37). 193–206.
  • — (1990). "Yiddish Studies in Japan". In Wexler, Paul (ed.). Studies in Yiddish Linguistics. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag. pp. 167–169. ISBN 3-484-60345-3.
  • — (2008). "Jiddischforschung in Japan" [Yiddish Studies in Japan]. In Denz, Rebekka; Dubrau, Alexander A.; Riemer, Nathanael (eds.). Jiddische Quellen. Vereinigung für Jüdische Studien. University of Potsdam. pp. 168–171. ISBN 978-3-940793-41-6.

Translations

Ka-Tsetnik 135633 collapsed while testifying against Adolf Eichmann.
  • Ka-Tsetnik 135633 (1974). "Farbrante erd" [Scorched earth]. Doitsu bungaku ronshuu [German Literature Essay Collection] (7). Translated by Ueda, Kazuo. Hiroshima: 50–62.
  • Segal, Kalman (1976). "Senso-no-ato" [Nokh der milkhome, After the war]. Ehime doitsu bungaku [German Literature, Ehime] (4). Translated by Ueda, Kazuo. Matsuyama: 67–81.
  • Goldfaden, Awrom (1992) [1886]. Ueda, Kazuo (ed.). Schulamiss: Transkription der jiddischen Texte, die Kafka sah, in die lateinische Schrift mit Anmerkungen. Vol. 2. Fukuoka University. pp. 1–64.[13]
  • Scharkansky, Awrom (1992) [1907]. Ueda, Kazuo (ed.). Kol-Nidrej: Transkription der jiddischen Texte, die Kafka sah, in die lateinische Schrift mit Anmerkungen. Vol. 2. Fukuoka University. pp. 65–139.[13]
  • Goldfaden, Awrom (1994) [1887]. Ueda, Kazuo (ed.). Bar-Kochba: Transkription der jiddischen Texte, die Kafka sah, in die lateinische Schrift mit Anmerkungen. Vol. 3. Fukuoka University. pp. 1–84.[13]
  • Gordin, Jankew (1994) [1899]. Ueda, Kazuo (ed.). Di Schctite: Transkription der jiddischen Texte, die Kafka sah, in die lateinische Schrift mit Anmerkungen. Vol. 3. Fukuoka University. pp. 85–163.[13]
  • Latejner, Josef (2001) [1994]. Ueda, Kazuo (ed.). Di ssejdernacht: Transkription der jiddischen Texte, die Kafka sah, in die lateinische Schrift mit Anmerkungen. Vol. 1. Fukuoka University. pp. 1–69.[13]
  • Gordin, Jankew (2001) [1907]. Ueda, Kazuo (ed.). Der Wilder Mensch: Transkription der jiddischen Texte, die Kafka sah, in die lateinische Schrift mit Anmerkungen. Vol. 1. Fukuoka University. pp. 71–125.[13]
  • Gordin, Jankew (2001) [1903]. Ueda, Kazuo (ed.). Got, Mensch un Tajwel: Transkription der jiddischen Texte, die Kafka sah, in die lateinische Schrift mit Anmerkungen. Vol. 1. Fukuoka University. pp. 127–227.[13]

Edited

  • Ueda, Kazuo, ed. (November 1983). "Jewish American Literature Special Number". Eigo Seinen. Kenkyusha Publishers.[22]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ For example, Ryo Namikawa made a Japanese translation of Sholem Asch's Mary in 1934, by translating an English translation.
  2. ↑ Ueda dates its publication to 1971 while attaching a bibliography of his work that dates it to 1970.[9] It was in 1970.[10]
  3. ↑ In English, Yiddish-Japanese Dictionary, and in Yiddish, Yidish-Yapanish Verterbukh.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Beard, Jonathan (October 1984). "Yen for Yiddish". Hadassah Magazine. Vol. 66, no. 2. p. 8.
  2. 1 2 3 Ueda, Kazuo (August 22, 2010). "序" [Preface]. Idiishugo Jiten (in Japanese) (1st ed.). Tokyo: Daigaku Syorin. p. iii. ISBN 978-4-475-00162-5.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Craft, Lucy (April 16, 2012). "For Japanese Linguist, A Long And Lonely Schlep". NPR. Retrieved August 10, 2026.
  4. 1 2 3 4 "Japanese Becomes Yiddishist". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. October 6, 1971. Retrieved August 10, 2026.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Ueda, Kazuo. "Yiddish Studies in Japan". In Wexler (1990), pp. 167-169.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Perlin, Ross (January 16, 2012). "Land of the Rising Zun". The Forward. Retrieved August 10, 2026.
  7. 1 2 Nishimura, Yuu (May 30, 2017). "The State of Yiddish Studies in Japanese Universities". In geveb. Retrieved August 10, 2026.
  8. 1 2 3 4 Dubinsky, Stanley; Wexler, Paul. "Book Review: Idisshugo bunpoo nyuumon. Arajnfir in der jidišer gramatik". In Wexler (1990), pp. 184-186.
  9. 1 2 Wexler, Paul. "References and Bibliography of Yiddish Linguistics 1977–1988". In Wexler (1990), p. 213.
  10. ↑ Written at Tokyo. "What's 'nu' in Japanese?". The Jewish Chronicle. No. 5262. London. February 27, 1970. p. 14.
  11. ↑ Imai, Isao (December 26, 1990). "Nu? A Japanese is Teaching Israelis Yiddish!". The Jerusalem Post. Vol. 58, no. 17629. p. 5. Syndicated freely online at the Northern California Jewish Bulletin.
  12. 1 2 3 Choseed, Bernard (January 1992). "Yiddish in Japan". Jewish Currents. Vol. 46, no. 1. pp. 12–14.
  13. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Bruce, Iris (September 16, 2011). "The Cultural and Historical Context of Kafka's Metamorphosis: Anti-Semitism, Zionism, and the Yiddish Plays". Critical Insights: The Metamorphosis: 55, 78, 80.
  14. ↑ Densky, Doreen (2015). "Speaking for Liveliness: Franz Kafka's Obituary for "Hyperion" and his Introductory Speech on Yiddish". The German Quarterly. 88 (3): 352. ISSN 0016-8831.
  15. ↑ Blahak, Boris (2018). "Fehlende (und überflüssige) Bausteine ,hypothetischer Sprachbiographien'". In Philipp, Hannes; Ströbl, Andrea; Weber, Bernadette; Wellner, Johann (eds.). Deutsch in Mittel-, Ost- und Südosteuropa. University of Regensburg. pp. 21–22. doi:10.5283/EPUB.37387. ISBN 978-3-88246-389-7.
  16. ↑ Lutto, Rebecca Schlam (June 29, 2006). "'Somehow Yiddish still lives'". The Jewish Standard. Retrieved August 10, 2026.
  17. 1 2 3 Kamoshida, Satoko (2018). "«Ladino, judeoespañol, porque vinimos de España»: Memoria y cultura de los sefardíes" (PDF). Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (in Spanish): 40–41, 44.
  18. ↑ White, Rebecca. "Tokyo Storm Warning". Yiddish Book Center. Retrieved August 10, 2026.
  19. ↑ "Jewish Book Annual, Vol. 52, 1994-1995 (5755)". Jewish Currents. Vol. 49, no. 4. April 1995. p. 19.
  20. 1 2 NYPL (1998). Bibliographic Guide to East Asian Studies. Internet Archive. G.K. Hall & Co. p. 866. ISBN 978-0-7838-0208-4.
  21. ↑ Handler, Troim Katz (January 2003). "An Expert's Opinion on Transliteration". Der Bay. Vol. 13, no. 1. p. 4.
  22. ↑ Gold, Doris B. (August–September 1986). "American Jewish Literature: The New Japanese Audience". Midstream. Vol. 32, no. 7. Internet Archive. Theodore Herzl Foundation. p. 30.

Sources

  • Wexler, Paul, ed. (1990). Studies in Yiddish Linguistics. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag. ISBN 3-484-60345-3.
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