BL. W. B. Yeats

159. Naitô, Shirô. ‘Yeats and Zen Buddhism’. Eastern Buddhist NS 5/2 (1972): 171-78.

Primarily a reading of The Statues (43) in Zen terms, though includes as well notes about three letters of interest here. The first, to Naitô from Yano (see 76), notes that when Yano met Yeats in Ireland in 1927 he gave him a copy of the first series of Suzuki’s Essays in Zen Buddhism, and thereafter until Yeats’s death sent Yeats ‘every issue’ of the Eastern Buddhist; a second letter, from Suzuki himself to Bandô Shôjun, notes that the ‘Buddha’s emptiness’ of The Statues perhaps comes from one of Suzuki’s books that he had sent to Yeats; finally, Naitô has ‘ascertained’ from Ishibashi Hiro (see 131) that among books in Yeats’s library was Suzuki’s Zen Buddhism and Its Influence on Japanese Culture. According to O’Shea (228) pages of all but one of the copies of The Eastern Buddhist in Yeats’s library remained uncut; Yano’s own account of his meeting with Yeats appears in 67. Naitô’s essay is largely incorporated in 224. For notes about Suzuki’s work see D28, and see also 113 and 196.