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Dorothy Britton

A pupil of Darius Milhaud she is known for her popular Capitol Records album Japanese Sketches , hailed by the American Record Guide as a highly successful ‘translation of the koto/samisen aesthetic into occidental terms’. Capitol also commissioned a musical. In addition, she had regular programmes on NHK’s Radio Japan introducing Japanese folklore, music and musicians, for listeners abroad, as well as a twelve-year TV programme  teaching English conversation to Japanese middle-school pupils and singing British folksongs with her Irish harp. Her distinguished translation of Basho’s Narrow Road to a Far Province is a classic.  She is also well known for her translation of Tetsuko Kuroyanagi’s best-seller Totto-chan, the Little Girl at the Window , and short stories by Ryonosuke Akutagawa.