Royall Tyler (born 1936) is a Japanologist. He is a descendant of the American playwright Royall Tyler (1757—1826). He was born in London, England, and grew up in Massachusetts, England, Washington D.C., and Paris, France. Between 1990 and 2000 he taught at the Australian National University. He was Reader at that university and is now a visiting Fellow in ANU's Faculty of Asian Studies. He has translated an anthology of Japanese folklore, a collection of Noh plays, and, recently The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu.
He has a B.A. in Far Eastern Languages (1957) from Harvard University and a Ph.D. in Japanese literature from Columbia University, and has also taught at the University of Wisconsin—Madison and the University of Oslo, Norway. At Columbia he was supervised by the doyen of Japanese studies in the West, Donald Keene.
He lives in New South Wales, outside Canberra in Australia.
In 2008, the government of Japan conferred the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon, which represents the third highest of eight classes associated with this award. This honor acknowledged his exceptional contribution in introducing non Japanese audiences to the Noh theatre through "his highly acclaimed translations and publications of numerous Noh plays, culminating in over forty years of research and deep understanding of classical Japanese literature and culture."
In 2001 Dr Tyler completed translating the entire Tale of Genji, a task that took approximately eight years. It is the third translation of the entire Tale into English.
Honors
Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon, 2008.
Tyler, Royall. (1990). The Miracles of the Kasuga Deity: Records of Civilization. New York: Columbia University Press. 10-ISBN 0-231-06958-8; 13-ISBN 978-0-231-06958-8 (cloth)
_____________. (2002). The Hidden Tale of Genji (Occasional papers in Japanese studies). Cambridge: Harvard University, Edwin O. Reischauer Institute Of Japanese Studies.
Individual authors
Kawaguchi, Matsutaro. (2007). Mistress Oriku: Stories from a Tokyo Teahouse (tr. Royall Tyler). Tokyo: Tuttle. 10-ISBN 0-8048-3842-9; 13-ISBN 978-0-8048-3842-9 (cloth) -- 10-ISBN 4-8053-0886-9; 13-ISBN 978-4-8053-0886-8 (paper)
Murasaki Shikibu. (2001) The Tale of Genji. (tr. Royall Tyler). New York: Viking Press. 10-ISBN 0-670-03020-1; 13-ISBN 978-0-670-03020-0 (cloth)
_____________. (2002). The Tale of Genji. (tr. Royall Tyler). New York: Penguin Classics. 10-ISBN 0-14-243714-X; 13-ISBN 978-0-14-243714-8 (paper)]
Suzuki, Sadami. (2006). The Concept of "Literature" in Japan (tr. Royall Tyler). Tokyo: International Research Center Japanese Studies. 10-ISBN 4-901558-31-5 (cloth)
Suzuki, Shosan. (1977). Selected Writings of Suzuki Shosan (tr. Royall Tyler). Ithica: Cornell University Press.
Yasuoka, Shotaro. (2008). The Glass Slipper and Other Stories (tr. Royall Tyler). Tokyo: Dalkey Archive Press. 10-ISBN 1-56478-504-1; 13-ISBN 978-1-56478-504-6 (cloth)
(2002). Japanese Tales. New York: Knopf Publishing. 10-ISBN 0-375-71451-0
Various. (1992). Japanese No Dramas (tr. Royall Tyler). London: Penguin Classics. 10-ISBN 0-14-044539-0; 13-ISBN 978-0-14-044539-8 (paper)
Various. (1978). Granny Mountains: A Second Cycle of No Plays (tr. Royall Tyler). Ithaca: Cornell University Press. 10-ISBN 0-939657-18-X; 13-ISBN 978-0-939657-18-6 (paper)
Various. (1978). Pining Wind: A Cycle of No Plays (tr. Royall Tyler). Ithaca: Cornell University Press. 10-ISBN 0-939657-17-1; 13-ISBN 978-0-939657-17-9 (paper)
Various. (1970). Twenty Plays of the No Theatre (tr. Donald Keene and Royall Tyler). New York: Columbia University Press. 10-ISBN 0-231-03454-7; 13-ISBN 978-0-231-03454-8 (cloth) -- 10-ISBN 0-231-03455-5; 13-ISBN 978-0-231-03455-5 (paper)