Leon M. Zolbrod was a pioneer scholar of traditional Japanese literature who first came into contact with Japan during his service with the American military in 1948 and later taught English there. Zolbrod earned his MA and Ph.D. degrees in Japanese literature from Columbia. He taught at the University of Indiana and then Kansas before moving to the University of British Columbia in 1967, where he taught Japanese language and literature for twenty-three years. Much of Zolbrod's research and publication activities focussed on making the literature of Edo Japan more accessible to Western audiences. His first book was Takizawa Bakin (1967), and he later edited and translated Ugetsu Monogatari (1975). In addition, Zolbrod completed a significant study tentatively entitled Reluctant Genius: The Life and Work of Buson, a Japanese Master of Haiku and Painting, not published. Leon Zolbrod passed away in Vancouver on April 16, 1991.