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Donald Keene’s Legacy is a series of articles about Donald Keene’s achievements, his
personality and his involvement in Japanese society through current events and the people
associated with him. He was loved by many Japanese people and introduced the charms of
Japanese literature and culture to the world. The yellow dog illustration appearing with this
series is modeled after a dog that Keene cherished in childhood, and it is also depicted on his
grave in Tokyo. The kanji characters for “yellow dog” can be pronounced as “ki-inu” in
Japanese, and Keene altered it to "ki-in" as wordplay on his own name. He often used the
characters as his signature on letters.
