Edward Seidensticker's translations have introduced two generations of English-language audiences to the masterpieces of classical and modern Japanese literature. His patient rendering of novels ranging from the eleventh-century Tale of Genji to works of such modern masters as Junichiro Tanizaki, Yukio Mishima, and Nobel Prize winner Yasunari Kawabata has earned him the National Book Award as well as the Order of the Rising Sun, Japan's highest honour...