The Spirit of Japanese Art

Yone (Yonejiro) Noguchi (1875-1947) was an influential Japanese writer of poetry, fiction, essays and literary criticism in both English and Japanese.He attended Keio University in Tokyo but left before graduating to travel to San Francisco in November 1893 where he joined a newspaper run by Japanese exiles and, after a meeting with American poet Joaquin Miller, decided his true vocation was to become a poet. Miller encouraged Noguchi and introduced him to other San Francisco Bay area bohemians where he became an important figure on the literary scene until his departure for the East Coast in 1900. New York City became his prime base until 1904, and it was here he finally met Charles Warren Stoddard with whom he had long corresponded. Stoddard was one of a number of people with whom he became romantically involved, and it was with the help of editor Leonie Gilmour, with whom he later had a son, that he completed his first novel The American Diary of a Japanese Girl (1902) which was followed by The American Diary of a Japanese Parlor-Maid (1905). On a visit to England Noguchi self-published and promoted his third collection of poetry, From the Eastern Sea, and once again formed connections with the literary figures of the day. Back in New York at the outset of the Russo-Japanese War in 1904 he found that his articles on various aspects of Japanese culture were in great demand but he returned to Japan later that year where he became professor of English at Keio University in 1905 and at this time heard of the birth of his son. After a short-lived reunion he and Leonie parted for good in 1910. In 1913 he made his second trip to the UK giving lectures and at this time arranged for the publication of his books The Spirit of Japanese Poetry, The Spirit of Japanese Art and The Story of Yone Noguchi. The Spirit of Japanese Art is reprinted from the John Murray edition of 1915 in their The Wisdom of the East Series edited by L. Cranmer-Byng and Dr. S. A. Kapadia.