A. Critical and Comparative Studies

20. Gatenby, E. V. ‘The Influence of Japan on English Language and Literature’. Transactions and Proceedings of the Japan Society (London) 34 (1936-37): 37-64.

The first detailed account of Japanese influence in British verse begins with the question ‘To what extent have Japanese writings, history, philosophy, religion, and art affected our literature’, and answers it by discussing pertinent writers ‘in rough chronological order’, beginning with sixteenth-century historians and geographers and ending with contemporary dramatists and poets. Writers discussed include Edwin Arnold (see CA1), Binyon, Blunden, Hearn (D9), Kipling (see CA1), Masefield (see CA5), Noyes (see CA2), Plomer, and Yeats. Includes the only published reference to a ‘Japanese’ poem by Binyon, Momiji, which itself does not appear in the published record.