International Kierkegaard Newsletter 1999

No. 21 . October 1999 ISSN 0108-3104 p. 206

EDITORIAL:

Dear Friends, this edition of the International Kierkegaard Newsletter marks the twentieth anniversary of its founding at the end of October 1979. As we move towards the end of the century, it is appropriate to note that it is the electronic edition on the website International Kierkegaard Information at the University of Tasmania that is now the main publication, while the paper edition is still retained for those without internet access who wish to receive it. In this connection, thanks to all those who responded to last year's mailing survey with the address update. It was most helpful.
Also grateful thanks to the Malantschuk Memorial Foundation in Denmark for an award to help cover the cost of production of the Newsletter. It is much appreciated in these difficult economic times. This year's edition of the Newsletter comes in the context of further change, in that I am having to move to another office in the university's new Humanities/Arts building that is scheduled to be ready this December. Apologies, therefore, for the slight delay in getting the IKN sent out to you this year. It is due to the logistics of packing and moving and trying to produce the Newsletter at the same time - and also trying to get it done before the Y2K dates of concern. Also apologies that I have not yet managed to reply to all correspondence received from you. In the meantime, please here accept my grateful thanks for all your letters.
Many thanks to those who have sent in information for the Newsletter [but please always remember to give full details of the publication in question and the date. As you will see below, I lack one or two bits of information. If you can supply them, I can put them in in the next edition].

Prof. Dr. Masaru Otani: It is with great sadness that I have to report the death of Prof. Dr. Masaru Otani on December 1st, 1999. The news came as I was writing this editorial, and it is only fitting that a tribute should be paid here to one of the world's leading Kierkegaard scholars. Prof. Otani, who was founder (1937) and President of the Søren Kierkegaard Society in Japan (Osaka) with its Journal Kierkegaard-Studiet,and founder of the Danish Department at Osaka University of Foreign Studies in 1966 (of which he was the Director), contributed to Japanese and international Kierkegaard scholarship through an amazing scholarly activity. This activity included work on the Jubilee edition of Søren Kierkegaards Collected Works (translation from the Danish texts to Japanese), publication of which began in 1988. Prof. Otani valiantly continued his work with Kierkegaard in the face of ill-health in his later years. His contribution to Kierkegaard scholarship was acknowledged by all. It was acknowledged by Denmark when he was made Knight of the Dannebrog in 1974 and, on 11.11.98, Knight of the Dannebrog, 1st Class. His great scholarship will be sorely missed in the international Kierkegaard community.