Through the Torii

by Yone Noguchi

THROUGH THE TORII

“I do not know whether the essay is a Japanese literary form, but if it is not Mr. Noguchi has perfectly realised its possibilities, and has used it in a manner which makes our most delicate masters seem rather heavy-handed. For Mr. Noguchi, though he has lived much in England and America, and knows English literature well, has accepted nothing from the West which might spoil his native virtues. . . Himself we may describe—not necessarily exhaustively—as a mystical dandy.”—Francis Bickley in the Bookman (London).

“Noguchi’s essays leave one advanced in a conception of beauty, and enlarged in understanding; and that is not altogether familiar experience in bookreading.”—The Academy.

Other Books by Yone Noguchi

Seen and Unseen. Orientalia, New York.

The Voice of the Valley. Out of Print.

The American Diary of a Japanese Girl. Out of Print

From the Eastern Sea. Etkin Mathews, London.

The Pilgrimage. Elkin Mathews, London.

Lafcadio Hearn in Japan. Ekin Mathews, London.

The Spirit of Japanese Poetry. John Murray, London.

The Spirit of Japanese Art. Joho Murray, London.

The Story of Yone Noguchi. Chatto and Windus, London.

Japanese Hokkus. The Four Seas Company, Boston.

Hiroshige. Orientalia, New York.

Selected Poems of Yone Noguchi. The Four Seas Company, Boston.

THROUGH THE TORII

BY

YONE NOGUCHI

BOSTON

THE FOUR SEAS COMPANY

1922

printed in japan

TO

EDMUND GOSSE

CONTENTS
		Page
Kyoto		1
Nikko		8
Tokyo		16
The Holy Houses of Sleep		21
Daibutsu		27
Spring in Japan		34
The Willow-tree Woman		39
The East: The West		45
Hibachi		53
The Decline of the Japanese Taste of Tongue		58
The Fourteenth of December		66
A Handkerchief		74
Morning-glory		78
The Japanese Plum-blossom		84
Chrysanthemum		88
Cherry-blossom		93
A Japanese on the Poet Rossetti		98
A Japanese on Whistler		104
A Japanese Note on Yeats		110
Oscar Wilde		118
What is the Hokku Poem		126
Again on Hokku		140
On Poetry		149
Again On Poetry (not listed in the ToC)
The Morning Fancy		152
Insularity		156
My Attitude towards the Flowers		161
Faith		165
The Moods		167
Life		169
Happiness		172
Beauties		175
Truth		178
Ugliness		181
Netsukes		183
From a Japanese Ink Slab		195