Hayashi Steinbeck collection

Tetsumaro Hayashi was born in Sakaide City, Japan on March 22, 1929. From childhood, Hayashi was expected to become a priest of the Jodo Shinshu Sect temple, which would have continued a family tradition of priesthood that stood at twenty generations. But after graduating from Okayama University in Japan and coming to the United States for graduate school, he chose to become a college professor. This resulted in his excommunication from his priestly family by not succeeding his father as the chief priest of the Seichoji Temple. As Hayashi commented in a 1984 interview, “I just became a teacher instead of a preacher. The two aren’t that different, really. Besides, I think I’m teaching with missionary zeal, so I don’t feel I’ve disappointed my father.” This “missionary zeal” was sparked during his graduate studies in American literature at the University of Florida. It was in Florida that Hayashi first developed an interest in John Steinbeck and his literature. Despite his other academic pursuits, including a master’s degree in library science from Kent State University and a later interest in Shakespeare and Robert Greene, Hayashi’s fascination with Steinbeck literature never waned.

After completing his library science degree at Kent State, Hayashi married Akiko Sakuratani in April 1960, and their son Richard was born in 1962. The following year, Hayashi pursued his academic interests in Steinbeck, Shakespeare, and Elizabethan Drama through the doctoral program at Kent State. While at Kent State, he founded the Steinbeck Bibliographical Society with friend and fellow Steinbeck scholar Preston Beyer in 1966. A year later, the organization was renamed the Steinbeck Society of America. Along with Beyer and other Steinbeck scholars, Hayashi founded the Steinbeck Newsletter (renamed Steinbeck Quarterly in 1969) in 1968 and personally financed its production during the first year. In addition to these endeavors, he completed a dissertation on English novelist/playwright Robert Greene that later provided the foundation for three books and numerous academic articles. By the time Hayashi accepted a teaching position at Ball State University in 1968, the basis for his professional caeer had been built. In 2002, Hayashi received the Distinguished English Alumnus Award from Kent State University's graduate program in English.

During his career at Ball State (which lasted until his retirement in 1993) Hayashi became recognized as one of the world’s leading educators on the work of Steinbeck. As the founder, director and eventual president of the Steinbeck Society of America, he developed the Steinbeck Quarterly into a commercial publication that eventually reached 44 countries. Hayashi developed several other projects under the Steinbeck Society umbrella as well, including the Steinbeck Monograph Series (lasting from 1971 to 1991) and the Steinbeck Essay Series (1986-1991). Hayashi’s leadership in Steinbeck studies also contributed to the 1970 establishment of the Steinbeck Collection in Archives and Special Collections at the Ball State University Libraries. In addition to these activities, Hayashi produced books, articles and monographs at a highly prolific rate, and maintained a strong reputation as a lecturer and an advisor to students. Although Steinbeck was the central subject of his research and teaching, he also taught and wrote about Shakespeare, Robert Greene, Hemingway, and other figures of British and American literature.

Hayashi followed his retirement from Ball State by accepting a teaching position at Kwassui Women’s College in Nagasaki, Japan in the fall of 1993. His “self-willed, happy, temporary ‘exodus’” continued in April 1996 as a Graduate Professor and Vice President at Yasuda Women’s University in Hiroshima City until 2001.