アーサー・モリソンと日本

抄録

Arthur Morrison (1863-1945) is known as an English novelist who described the lives of the poor in the East End of London realistically around the turn of the century. His major works are “Tales of Mean Streets”, “A Child of the Jago”, “The Hole in the Wall”, etc. Although Morrison never went to Japan, he was also a keen collector and scholar of Japanese art (Japanese woodcut prints and paintings). Morrison wrote “The Painters of Japan” in 1911 which was regarded as indispensable contribution to Japanese art studies for around fifty years. His collections of Japanese prints and paintings which his studies of Japanese art were based upon have become parts of Japanese art collections at the British Museum. This essay examines how Arthur Morrison developed his interests and studies on Japanese prints and paintings through the contacts with Japanese people in London, such as Kumagusu Minakata, Kanzan Shimomura, Tokuboku Hirata and his friendship with W. E. Henley, Harold Parlett, Laurence Binyon. This essay also focuses on what Morrison gained personally from his studies of Japanese art, particularly Japanese prints (Ukiyoe) and his contacts and friendship with Japanese people in London. Through my study of Morrison's analogy between the Ukiyoe painters in the history of Japanese art and himself as regards their subjects, methods, etc., it can be concluded that Morrison might have received stronger influence from Japanese art than what is usually thought.