Giorgio Amitrano

Giorgio Amitrano (born 31 October 1957) is an Italian Japanologist, translator and essayist, specializing in Japanese language and literature.

Life and career
Amitrano grew up in Naples, graduating from the University of Naples "L'Orientale"; his professors included Maria Teresa Orsi, Luigi Polese Remaggi and Namkhai Norbu. He won a scholarship to Tokyo in 1984. The following year he moved to Osaka, where he stayed until 1989, also teaching at Osaka University.

He currently is full professor of Japanese Literature in the Department of Asian, African and Mediterranean Studies at L'Orientale. He also presided the Faculty of Political Science of the same university, where he taught Language and Culture of Japan. In 2012, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs nominated him head of the Italian Cultural Institute in Tokyo for a five-year term.

He is the translator to Italian of the works of Banana Yoshimoto (alongside Gala Maria Follaco) and Haruki Murakami, as well as having translated some of the works of Yasunari Kawabata and Yasushi Inoue. His translations earned him the Alcantara Prize in 1999, the Noma Award for the Translation of Japanese Literature in 2001, the Grinzane Cavour Prize in 2008, and the Monselice Prize (Special Jury Prize for Literary and Scientific Translation) in 2012. In 2020, he was awarded membership of the Order of the Rising Sun.

He is deputy editor of the journal Poetica; since 2004 he has written in the monthly magazine on literary and figurative arts Paragone (journal), and he also collaborates to a number of Italian newspapers and cultural publications: Corriere della Sera, la Repubblica, Il manifesto, Alias, L'Indice dei libri del mese and Nuovi Argomenti.

As a main author, the Italian School of East Asian Studies published his volume The New Japanese Novel: Popular Culture and Literary Tradition in the Work of Murakami Haruki and Yoshimoto Banana (1996) and Feltrinelli Il mondo di Banana Yoshimoto (1999, expanded in 2007). In 2007, he wrote the introduction to I miei cani by artist Giosetta Fioroni. In 2018, he published with DeA Planeta Libri Iro iro: il Giappone tra pop e sublime, where he analyzes present-day Japan between tradition and modernity.

Translations

 * Atsushi Nakajima
 * Cronaca della luna sul monte e altri racconti [The Moon Over the Mountain (山月記)], Marsilio, 1989
 * Banana Yoshimoto
 * Kitchen [Kitchin (キッチン)], Feltrinelli, 1991
 * N.P., Feltrinelli, 1993
 * Sonno profondo [Asleep (白河夜船)], Feltrinelli, 1994
 * Lucertola [Lizard (とかげ)], Feltrinelli, 1995
 * Amrita [Amurita (アムリタ)], Feltrinelli, 1997
 * Honeymoon [Hanemūn (ハネムーン)], Feltrinelli, 1999
 * H/H [Hardboiled & Hard Luck (ハードボイルド／ハードラック)], Feltrinelli, 2001
 * Presagio triste [Sad Premonition (哀しい予感)], Feltrinelli, 2003
 * Il corpo sa tutto [The Body Knows the Whole (体は全部知っている)], Feltrinelli, 2004
 * Ricordi di un vicolo cieco [Dead-End Memories (デッドエンドの思い出)], Feltrinelli, 2006
 * Chie-chan e io [Chie and I (チエちゃんと私)], Feltrinelli, 2008
 * A proposito di lei [About Her (彼女について)], Feltrinelli, 2013
 * Haruki Murakami
 * Tokyo Blues [Norwegian Wood (ノルウェイの森)], Feltrinelli, 1993
 * Dance Dance Dance [Dansu dansu dansu (ダンス・ダンス・ダンス)], Einaudi, 1998
 * La ragazza dello sputnik [Sputnik Sweetheart (スプートニクの恋人)], Einaudi, 2001
 * Tutti i figli di Dio danzano [All God's Children Can Dance (神の子どもたちはみな踊る)], Einaudi, 2005
 * Norwegian Wood, Einaudi, 2006 (new edition of the translation Tokyo Blues)
 * Kafka sulla spiaggia [Kafka on the Shore (海辺のカフカ)], Einaudi, 2008
 * 1Q84, Einaudi, 2011
 * Ranocchio salva Tōkyō [Super-Frog Saves Tokyo (かえるくん、東京を救う)], illustrated by Lorenzo Ceccotti, Einaudi, 2017
 * Kenji Miyazawa
 * Una notte sul treno della Via Lattea e altri racconti [Night on the Galactic Railroad (銀河鉄道の夜)], Marsilio, 1994
 * Murasaki Shikibu
 * Storia di Genji il principe splendente [The Tale of Genji (源氏物語)], Einaudi, 1992
 * Yasunari Kawabata
 * Prima neve sul Fuji [First Snow on Fuji (富士の初雪)], Mondadori, 2000
 * Il paese delle nevi [Snow Country (雪国)], Mondadori, 2003
 * La danzatrice di Izu [The Dancing Girl of Izu (伊豆の踊子)], translated with Gala Maria Follaco, Adelphi, 2017 – edition also incorporating Esistenza e scoperta della bellezza [The Existence and Discovery of Beauty (美の存在と発見)]
 * Romanzi e racconti [Novels and Tales], Mondadori, 2003 – a compendium of selected works
 * Yasushi Inoue
 * Il fucile da caccia [The Hunting Gun (猟銃)], Adelphi, 2004
 * Amore [Love (愛)], Adelphi, 2006
 * Yukio Mishima
 * Vita in vendita [Life for Sale (命売ります)], Feltrinelli, 2022

Essays

 * The New Japanese Novel: Popular Culture and Literary Tradition in the Work of Murakami Haruki and Yoshimoto Banana, Italian School of East Asian Studies, 1996
 * Il mondo di Banana Yoshimoto [The World of Banana Yoshimoto], Feltrinelli, 1999 (republished in 2007)
 * "Yama no oto" kowareyuku kazoku (「山の音」こわれゆく家族) [The Sound of the Mountain: a Family Falling Apart], Misuzu Shobō, 2007
 * Iro iro: il Giappone tra pop e sublime [Iro Iro: Japan Between Pop and Sublime], DeA Planeta Libri, 2018

Filmography

 * Amitrano makes a brief cameo in the role of a tour guide in the 1997 film The Vesuvians, in the segment La salita by Mario Martone.