From 1920 to 1921, Bertrand Russell lectured in China at the Peking Government University, and came to Japan in July 1921.

　His thoughts were received enthusiastically by Young China. Russell also loved the Chinese character and culture deeply. On the other hand, he was ill-impressed by Japan, and had difficulties with the police and newspaper cameramen. Consequently, his contact with Japan was not as intimate as that with China.

　But doubts can be raised as to whether Russell’s relationship with China was as deep as it appeared, when it is noticed, first, that some progressive Chinese became angry about Russell’s admiration of the traditional Chinese culture. Secondly, Russell and his lover Dora, who frequently clashed over other points, found themselves in perfect agreement about China, perhaps because they failed to understand China properly.

　In short, Japan and China, seemingly quite different for Russell, lay equally outside the range of his sympathies. Russell wrote that the Chinese reminded him of the English in their merits. Thus it may be concluded that Russell simply read merits and demerits of his true object of interest, England or the West, into these two Eastern countries.

　In 1905, George Meredith (1828-1909) wrote a preface in the newly published book titled The Japanese Spirit by Yoshisaburo Okakura, a Japanese scholar of English. This publishment was done just in the next year when Okakura delivered the lecture under the same title as a memorial lecture for founding a chair of sociology at the University of London. In the preface Meredith wrote about the Japanese and their culture and gave a high admiration to the race, when they fought the dreadful war——Russo-Japanese War.

　Though the preface is not long enough, he estimated the Japanese in the following four points:

(1) The Japanese have the advantages of possessing a native Nobility who were true nobles, not invaders and subjugators.

(2) Bushido, the way of Samurai, has been displayed in Russo-Japanese War by a glorious commonalty as well as the chiefs.

(3) Who could conquer the race who contempt death when the country’s inviolability is at stake ?

(4) A perusal reading of this Okakura’s book will take off the foolish talk of the Yellow Peril.

　In this paper, inspecting Meredith’s letters, I traced the way how he reached the recognition of Japan and the Japanese and showed a perspective of what this idea had the relation with his literary worlds.

　In 1902, Tokyo Senmon Gakkō celebrated the 20th anniversary of its foundation, when it was re-named Waseda University. It was two years later, i. e. in 1904, when Lafcadio Hearn was invited to teach at the University.

　The aim of this article is to inquire into what his days at Waseda meant to himself as well as to the University. It seems to me indispensable for the study of Lafcadio Hearn to bring to light his days there, which was in fact the last stage of his life in Japan. To this day a lot of articles and books on his life and works in Japan have been published, but there are few, if not none, that treat of this theme.

　Referring to the documents I have recently found in the University, I have tried here to clarify what the circumstances surrounding him at that time really were.

　They were as follows :

(1) Tsubouchi Shōyō, who was one of the leading figures in the University, played an important part in inviting Hearn to Waseda.

(2) The students of the Department of Literature petitioned the University to invite him.

(3) He was invited with an exceptionally high salary to serve as the University’s “figurehead”.

(4) The subjects he taught were;

　 I. March-July, 1904. a. History of English Literature in the 19th Century. b. Modern English Poems.

　 II. Sept. 1904 - July 1905. (during which term he was to teach but died on 26th September 1904) a. History of English Literature. b. Modern English Literature.

　(5) From among those students whom he taught there emerged a number of well-known poets, writers and men of letters.

　Ohgais Novelle „Nezumizaka“ erinnert an Kleists „Das Bettelweib von Locarno“: Der Geistererscheinung wegen stirbt der Held in beiden Geschichten. Trotzdem sind die Eindrücke nach dem Lesen nicht gleichartig. Woher kommt das ?

　Ohgai hat zwei Novellen von Kleist übersetzt: „Das Erdbeben in Chili“ und „Die Verlobung in St. Domingo“. Seine Übersetzungen sind in stilistischer Hinsicht klarer und einfacher als die Originale. Wie Übersetzung und Original so unterscheiden sich in gleicher Weise die beiden Erzählungen „Nezumizaka“ und „Das Bettelweib“ . Kleists Werk ist das des Dramatikers, als selbst Betroffener schreibt er leidenschaftlich; Ohgai ist der Epiker, der als Betrachtender gelassen gestaltet.

　Diese Andersartigkeit beider Erzählungen prägt sich erstens im Stil aus. Zweitens schildert Kleist den Spuk irrational, wie er es vom Wesen her auch ist. Man zittert im Lesen. Aber Ohgai wollte das Phänomen des Geistes vernünftig erklären, so können wir seine Geschichte in aller Ruhe lesen. Drittens weist Ohgai im voraus andeutend auf den Höhepunkt hin. Der Leser fühlt sich in seiner Erwartung enttäuscht; die Spannung ist ihm genommen. Daß „Das Bettelweib von Locarno“ die dramatische Form an sich hat, dagegen „Nezumizaka“ erklärend und episch ist, das hat seinen Grund in der Natur eines jeden der beiden Dichter.

　Attracted by the traditional Japanese No plays, Yukio MISHIMA wrote modern No plays, including Hanjo written in 1955.

　The author seems to have been inspired by the structure and metaphysical themes of No. His adaptations of the original No dramas were very free because he intended that the fundamental ideas of his modern No plays should be intelligible for contemporary people.

　As concerns Hanjo, Mishima has made two important modifications. One of them is the creation of a unique female character named Jitsuko. She is an eccentric unmarried artist who has never loved men or waited for anything. Her character presents a striking contrast to that of Hanako, a beautiful mad girl waiting for her unfaithful lover. The other modification is that Mishima’s Hanjo doesn’t have a happy ending, while the original is almost the only No drama that comes to a happy conclusion. In Mishima’s play Hanako cannot recognize her lover who has come back to her, and she rejects him.

　Owing to these modifications, Mishima’s Hanjo has become much more logical than the original by Zeami. It, however, has lost a part of the symbolic poesie which is one ot the main characteristics of the No plays. Unlike Samuel Beckett’s En Attendant Godot in which also appear two men waiting for Godot limitlessly, all characters in Mishima’s Hanjo act rationally, not absurdly.

　Hawthorne’s choice of a scene for his story and the detail of his explanation of that scene are absolutely essential to his romances. He was always looking for a fairy land, similar to the real world, because he felt that there was hardly any strange, antique, or pictorial enchantment in America. Thus, he had to create a world resembling such a fairy land in his American romances.

　His wife, Sophia, exerted a great influence upon his Italian romances. Most of the references to Italy and the Italian culture appear in works after meeting Sophia. After serving four years as a consul in Liverpool, England, Hawthorne and his family spent two winters in Italy, where he found materials that made his romances easier to write than they had been. In Italy he found a land naturally possessing a half-mysterious but definitely real atmosphere ; furthermore he found a world, in which time—the past, the present, and the eternity—was manifest and observable.

　Italy resolved his recurring dilemma between a novel and a romance by enabling him simply to copy observations he had recorded in his journals, especially The French and Italian Notebooks. In my brief survey I have attempted to study the influence of Hawthorne’s stay in Italy upon his romances.

　In this paper, I would like to make clear the importance of the comparative literary method in approaching the works of George Oppen (1908-1984). To explain his nonconforming poetic works, first of all, it should be remembered that in 1926 Carl Sandburg came to the Agricultural College at Corvalis near San Francisco, where college students, George and his future wife Mary among them, attended his poetry reading of “Tog”, which is said to be influenced by “Haiku”.

　 After being married, George and Mary, hitchhiked from San Francisco to New York, where they met Louis Zukofsky, one of the forerunners of modern poetry in the East. In 1932, Zukofsky edited The Objective Anthology, a guide post of objectivism and in its epic section chose Oppen’s poem:

　White, From the Under arm of T The red globe. Up Down. Round Shiny fixed Alternatives From the quiet Stone Floor…

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　Kajin no kigū （『佳人之奇遇』） written by Tōkai Sanshi (1852-1922) was one of the most popular political novels in the Meiji Era. In the book he vividly described European invasions of lesser countries in the world including Egypt and Madagascar, and told how Japan should deal with great powers, emphasizing that each country must preserve its national dignity and respect for its own culture.

　His personal experience was indispensable for the origin of the story. Born in a family of Aizu clansman, he became a refugee after the armed conflict between the Shōgunate party and loyalists in 1868. Having tasted the bitters of life, he managed to get a chance to study in the United States on a scholarship from 1879 to 1884. He published the first volume of Kajin no kigū in 1885, based on the knowledge acquired both at home and abroad, and completed the work in 1897. He was the first Japanese who could identify Japan with Africa which was on the verge of European colonization.

　This paper is an attempt to examine his view of Africa and show how unique it was in the light of modern Japanese history.

　Les Français se faisaient, depuis le XIX^e siècle, des Etats-Unis une image négative: un pays qui ne faisait développer qu’une civilisation matérielle et donc qui n’avait pas une littérature riche. Il s’ensuit que la littérature américaine avait besoin de quelques conditions particulières pour être introduite et lue en France; les conditions: cette littérature dévoile l’âme profonde du peuple américain avec ses regards impitoyables, et elle présente aussi des techniques de narration nouvelles et originales, qui font comprendre aux Français la littérature américaine au fond riche, capable de se critiquer et de se surpasser. Nous pouvons considérer, comme de bons exemples remplissant ces conditions, le succès de ces deux auteurs américains en France: Edgar Poe et John Dos Passos.

　Examinons d’abord le cas de Poe dont les contes ont été traduits par Baudelaire. En brossant un portrait tel qu’“une pensée anti-américaine”, cet admirateur français désirait que Poe, un génie exclu du monde vulgaire, soit sauvé en France. Et en même temps ce jeune poète, décidé aussi à poursuivre “le rêve supérieur de l’application de la métaphysique au roman”，découvrait, dans les contes de Poe, la “magie” pour peindre “les exceptions de la vie humaine et de la nature”.

　Aussi dans la vogue de Dos Passos juste après la guerre nous pouvons trouver ces deux conditions. Premièrement le panorama historique dessiné dans la trilogie USA a permis à beaucoup de Français d’apercevoir ce qu’est la chasse aux dollars, la mort de l’âme dans la civilisation moderne. Ensuite la technique toute nouvelle par successions d’images exactes et rapides a attiré l’attention des critiques.

　Ainsi sous ces conditions favorables la littérature américaine a pu s’assurer l’appui des Français plus solide que dans sa patrie.