In München, Ōgai Mori (1862-1911) in his young days stated in “Die Wahrheit über Japan” against Naumann’s “Land und Leute der japanischen Inselkette” that ‘Besteht die wahre europaische Kultur nicht in der Erkenntnis der Freiheit und Schönheit im reinsten Sinn des Wortes ?’ Such recognition as these may have something to do with the life of his own in Germany, but the close observation of his reading experience of Goethe and Schiller, both of whose works were his favorites in his young days, seems to make these situations clearer. His campaign for enlightenment after his returning home seems to have the deep relationship with this recognition as ‘Die Erkenntnis der Freiheit und Schönheit.’

　This paper is concerned with how the Western world was reflected in his mind through the reading of these two great German writers, not how he was influenced by them. This study also will be one of the important steps to make Ōgai’s consciousness of the Western civilization clear.

　Rabindranath Tagore first visited Japan in 1916, three years after he received the Nobel prize for literature. Since he was the first Asian to be thus honored, many Japanese regarded him as a ‘face-saver’ for Asian countries. Furthermore, they considered him a nationalistic poet, partly because he wrote three short poems in celebration of the Japanese victory over Russia in 1905. His first visit was reported in great detail by many Japanese newspapers, especially the Asahi Shinbun.

　Tagore delivered three speeches in Japan : ‘India and Japan’, ‘The Message from India to Japan’，and ‘The Spirit of Japan’. In the second of these he emphasized the following points :① harmful nationalistic trends in Europe, ② Japan’s mission to infuse civilization with a fuller humanity,③ India’s experimental contribution to the solution of the race-problem. Among the published comments on Tagore’s views the philosopher-novelist Iwano Homei refused to admit Tagore’s dichotomy between the nation and the individual, charging the poet with having failed to grasp the real situation. In the end, Tagore’s anti- nationalistic claims were disbelieved in Japan, both because his argument was not convincingly constructed and because the Japanese were becoming strongly nationalistic.

　This paper is concerned with the following three points : (1) why The Man in Safety（『無事の人』）written by Yuzo Yamamoto in 1949 was revised after three years of its publication, (2) how the original work has been changed into another aspect, (3) what new evaluations can be given to the revised one.

　The Man in Safety, written shortly after the World War II was bitterly criticised because of the coexistance of two repulsive factors in the novel― the story of the blind man named Tame-san and the war-and-peace theory immaturely quoted from the Condition of Peace by Edward Hallet Carr, the famous British economist.

　But when the author carried out the revision of the novel in 1952, he condensed the tedious theory in short. Instead of that, the scenes of ‘darkness’ have been settled new in the last chapter. This idea of ‘darkness’ seems to have the significance that ‘any light comes through darkness’― the paradoxical manner of which he got hints from the scenes of “Die Augen des ewigen Bruders” （「永遠の兄の目」）by Stefan Zweig.

　This paradoxical idea of ‘darkness’ has made that too didactic and immature work lead to one of the deep insighted novels of man and life.

　This survey covers the history of Newman’s reception in Japan during the first two decades of the Showa era.

　Sôichi Iwashita (1889-1940), a Roman Catholic priest, should be mentioned in the early Showa era not only as a Newman scholar, but moreover as a Japanese “Newman.” Fr. Iwashita had been reading Newman’s works since his university days, but his interest was further strengthened after his meeting with Baron Friedrich von Hügel (1852- 1925) in England in 1920. Fr. Iwashita opened St. Philip’s Dormitory for university students, imitating the spirit of Newman’s Oratory, and started vigorous religious activities in the area of publishing and lecturing. Like Newman, Fr. Iwashita’s whole activity was dedicated to acquiring a real freedom and power of speech for Catholicism among the intellectuals of Japan.

　Yoshihiko Yoshimitsu (1904-1945) was greatly influenced by Fr. Iwashita. We see his profound study and understanding of Newman in his preface to the Japanese translation of Erich Przywara’s A Newman Synthesis (1933) and in his own writing of Catholicism, Thomas, and Newman (1933).

　1933 was a memorable year in the history of Newman’s reception in Japan. In this year, the centenary of the Oxford Movement was commemorated by the Japanese Anglicans, the Protestants, and the Catholics, though in different ways. Commemorational gatherings and lectures were held, various books and articles related to the movement or the leaders were written or translated on this occasion. It was the age when threatening cloud was already hanging over the world, and the Newman scholars susceptibly sensed the critical situation of the age and tried to find some overcoming strength in returning to Newman.

　After World War II, in the age of great confusion and change, some of the Newman scholars, understanding the demand of the age, tried to translate Newman’s works and introduce his ideas and thoughts to the Japanese. The first epock-making translation was Apologia Pro Vita Sua in 1948. In 1949 some parts of The Idea of a University were translated, then in 1951, Loss and Gain was also put into Japanese. With great enthusiasm these scholars introduced Newman to this country, however, Newman’s “Second Spring” had not yet come to Japan.