Preface

Abstract

The aim of this work is to explore the Japanese influence upon certain modern Western writers who either taught or lectured in Japan and who showed a keen interest in the country and its culture: Lafcadio Hearn, from 1890 to 1903, first as a schoolteacher and then as a professor at the Imperial University in Tokyo; William Plomer at the Tokyo School of Foreign Studies (1926–29); Peter Quennell at the Tokyo Bunrika University, succeeded by William Empson (1931–34); George Barker at Tohoku University (1939); G S Fraser, a Cultural Adviser to the United Kingdom Liaison Mission (1950–51); D J Enright at Konan University (1953–56); Anthony Thwaite at Tokyo University (1955–57 and 1985–86) and elsewhere; James Kirkup at Tohoku University (1958–61), at the Japan Women’s University (1964–76), and at the Kyoto University of Foreign Studies (1977–88); Ronald Bottrall, a Representative of the British Council (1959–61); Dennis Keene at Kyoto University (1961–63); Harry Guest at Yokohama National University in the 1960s; and Peter Robinson, in Japan since 1989, currently at Tohoku University. Two novelists are included: Iris Murdoch, who gave lecture tours in 1974 and 1992; and Francis King, a British Council representative in Kyoto, who also taught at Konan University (1959–63). I have enjoyed the privilege of an interview with many of these writers, including Sir Stephen Spender, who visited Japan in the 1950s and 1980s, and Sir Laurens Van der Post, who accompanied Plomer briefly to Japan in 1926, and has returned a number of times.