Yonejiro Noguchi

Image: Collection of the Fukuzawa Memorial Center for Modern Japanese Studies

Yonejiro Noguchi (Yone Noguchi) was a figure well known both in Japan and abroad in the first half of the 20th century as a poet and international man of culture who produced numerous works. Today, however, he is often introduced as the father of the sculptor Isamu Noguchi. Although Noguchi was a poet of such stature that he was selected alongside other poets for the 50-year-old "Nihon no Shiika" (Chuo Koronsha), he had long been a forgotten figure, to the extent that literary critics stated in the supplement that he was the least read and that people had a "prejudice against the unknown" regarding his work.

However, when Madoka Hori's "'Dual Nationality' Poet Yonejiro Noguchi" was published in 2012, the book won the Suntory Prize for Social Sciences and Humanities. It can be said that light was finally shed on the achievements Noguchi left in cultural and literary history. This time, I would like to take up the forgotten Yonejiro Noguchi while referring to Ms. Hori's laborious work.

Yonejiro Noguchi was born on December 8, 1875, in what is now Tsushima City, Aichi Prefecture, as the fourth child of his father Denbei and mother Kuwa (Kumi).

His father came from a family lineage that included the younger brother of Hirate Masahide, known for admonishing Oda Nobunaga, but the family had put down the sword to become farmers. His mother was the younger sister of the monk Shaku Taishun, a close friend of Kumoi Tatsuo, who was active at the end of the Edo period. His parents were devout Buddhists, and Yonejiro's older brother (the third son) entered the priesthood. Yonejiro was constantly told stories about his uncle Taishun by his mother and grew up being told to become as great as his uncle.

Yonejiro studied at Tosei School after passing through the middle course of the local Tsushima Elementary School. Later, after briefly attending a Buddhist school in Nagoya by relying on his uncle, he entered a prefectural middle school. Around this time, he read Smiles' "Self-Help" and began to take an interest in learning English. He was particularly influenced by the story "Robinson of the East," about a young man named Tsurukichi Tanaka who struggled after traveling to the United States. At the time, Yonejiro was a fearless young man who would strike up conversations in English whenever he found a foreigner.

In February 1890, Yonejiro left his uncle's house and went to Tokyo with the aim of achieving success in life. The house where he stayed as a lodger was next to the Jiji Shimpo newspaper office. Although he saw Fukuzawa in his everyday kimono (kinagashi) on a daily basis, even the fearless Yonejiro felt a sense of majesty from Fukuzawa; while he thought of speaking to him, he lost his usual audacity and was unable to do so. This clearly shows the weight Fukuzawa's presence held for the youth of that time.

Noguchi entered Seiritsu Gakusha, a school for English studies, but he was reportedly appalled by the students who were loose with time and uninhibited, and the teachers who did not even caution them. Around this time, he began to encounter novels and plays, which he himself described as the emergence of "delinquent tendencies." The following year, to shake off those tendencies and partly because he had been observing Fukuzawa nearby, he entered Keio University. For students of that time aspiring to English studies, entering Keio was a natural progression and nothing special. Noguchi made close friends and reportedly managed to clear his weak subject, mathematics, by ghostwriting essays for his friends.

Students at the time were active and strongly rebellious. In a class taught by an English teacher who made many mistranslations, the students went on strike, and Noguchi, as a committee member, demanded the dismissal of the teacher from President Tokujirō Obata. Obata told them, "I will dispatch Ikinoshin Kadono to investigate, so stop the strike," and the students complied. However, Kadono reportedly walked around the classroom once in silence and left, leaving the students dumbfounded.

At Keio, he mainly studied economics and history, and also took lectures on Spencer's theory of education in the special course. Still, his inclination toward literature did not cease; he read Irving's "The Sketch Book" and borrowed a collection of Hugo's essays from his close friend Kennosuke Tsushima, who had borrowed it from Yukio Ozaki.

In addition, he was interested in haiku and visited the hermitage of Kikakudo Eiki for dialogue. From 1893, Noguchi began lodging at the home of Shigetaka Shiga, and upon hearing Den Sugawara's talk about North America, he decided to visit the United States.

By the time Noguchi studied at Keio, Fukuzawa was no longer standing at the lectern and only gave talks at the Enzetsukan (Public Speaking Hall). Noguchi heard Fukuzawa's public speaking several times, and was particularly impressed by a theory of life that likened humans to grooms (stable hands). Fukuzawa stated, "If a groom stays too far from the horse, the horse cannot follow; if a human is too great, they cannot lead the world. The secret to success lies in being only two or three feet ahead."

Noguchi felt that his own attitude of trying to obtain fruit all at once went against Fukuzawaism, and even after he later stood at the lectern at Keio, he reportedly continued to feel out of place. He also remembered an incident where a glass of water thrown onto the floor by a student during a speech splashed onto Fukuzawa, who was in the audience, and Fukuzawa shouted, "You fool!" in a loud voice. Noguchi described this as "an iron whip to strike the foolish" and was impressed by Fukuzawa's short temper, just as he had heard in rumors.

The only time the two met face-to-face was when Noguchi visited Fukuzawa's home to pay his respects before leaving for the United States. Noguchi, who showed a sharp sensitivity to light, noted in his memoirs that the light of a candle illuminated the two of them ("Fragments of an Autobiography"). Fukuzawa praised the young man before him for his courage in going abroad penniless and encouraged him by comparing life to dice, saying, "After all, life is a gamble; if you fear danger, you cannot grasp the final fruit," which made Noguchi very happy. Then, Fukuzawa took out a photograph of himself as a parting gift. Noguchi described the sight of Fukuzawa grinding ink to write a Chinese poem on it as being as large as the Great Buddha of Kamakura. After writing the poem, Fukuzawa carefully wrapped the photo in paper and saw Noguchi off to the entrance, saying, "Take care of yourself." Noguchi carried that photo in his bag even after arriving in the U.S., but when he lent it to a Japanese student at Stanford University, it reportedly never came back.

In November 1893, Noguchi boarded a steamship from Yokohama and arrived in San Francisco in December. He performed various jobs such as window washing and dishwashing, but his life of hardship continued. Once, while washing dishes, he heard Japanese students whispering that the poet Joaquin Miller was a "hermit" and became interested. Later, he became a dependent of the San Francisco Newspaper (Soko Shimbun), living a life of handling odd jobs while writing translated articles. Since there was someone at the newspaper office who had been to Miller's mountain villa, Noguchi asked if he could stay there if he worked. He was told that Miller liked Japanese people and had hosted them before, and that there he could sleep as much as he wanted and read the books he wanted to read.

Overjoyed, Noguchi sold the four or five books he owned to cover his travel expenses and decided to visit the villa. The three books he kept were a collection of Poe's poems, Matsuo Basho's haiku collection, and a record of Zen sayings. This was in 1895, when Noguchi was 19 years old.

In April, he visited Miller's residence. Miller's villa, called "The Heights," was a place where cultural figures came and went freely, forming a circle. Miller, who worshipped Whitman and Thoreau, said, "Do not read books; feel within nature," and was so thorough that he even nailed his own books to pillars so they could not be read. However, Noguchi secretly bought candles and managed to read Miller's nailed-up writings. From there, he learned the process of a poet publishing a collection of poems at his own expense and having it gain recognition.

In 1896, Noguchi sent his own English poems to a magazine company. The editor praised them as "novel and beautiful." However, as they were not being published, he sent his English poems to another magazine, which introduced them as expressing the "lonely thoughts of an alien" and published five pieces at the beginning of the issue, which became a sensation in various newspapers and magazines.

Media personnel and ordinary citizens flocked to Miller's villa to meet Noguchi, and he was temporarily forced to take refuge at an acquaintance's house. In December of the same year, he published his first collection of poems, "Seen and Unseen," and published a second collection the following year. Noguchi became known as a figure who brought a new wind to American poetry. Later, he moved his base from San Francisco to Chicago and then to New York.

In 1901, when Noguchi began writing a novel, he recruited an English proofreader. Leonie Gilmour was the one hired. Leonie gave birth to Isamu in 1904. However, Noguchi had no intention of living with Leonie and repeatedly engaged in romances with various women.

In 1902, Noguchi moved his base to London, England. He visited publishers to try to self-publish a collection of poems just as he had with Miller, but he could not get a good response. After becoming acquainted with a poet working at the British Museum, his social circle expanded, and he was able to print 200 copies of the poetry collection "From the Eastern Sea." This led to letters from famous poets and literati, and he began to be featured in various newspapers and magazines. Then, just as with his U.S. debut, people flocked to his lodgings to catch a glimpse of Noguchi. The 19-year-old writer Arthur Ransome was one of them; he and Noguchi hit it off and deepened their friendship.

In 1904, Noguchi returned to Japan with his success in Britain and the U.S., becoming a darling of the era. He stood at the lectern of Keio University one day a week and spent the remaining days writing at Engaku-ji Temple in Kamakura. In addition to publishing his English poetry for international audiences, he actively introduced and explained Japanese culture (especially Ukiyo-e, Noh, Kyogen, and Haiku). He also interacted with cultural figures from various countries and gave many lectures.

At the time, interest in Eastern culture was rising in various Western countries, and Noguchi's presence was regarded as important for connecting those Eastern and Western cultures. In the 1920s, it even came to be said within Japan that "knowing his poetry is a duty for Japanese people." The magazine "Nihon Shijin" (Japanese Poets) ran a "Yone Noguchi Special," filled with tributes to Noguchi from cultural figures including Roan Uchida. Uchida in particular went so far as to say that there was no Japanese person other than Noguchi who would win the Nobel Prize in Literature, but Noguchi himself did not rejoice and received such voices of praise coldly.

One reason Noguchi's presence was forgotten after the war was his enthusiastic stance in support of the war. Behind this, however, were complex circumstances: for Noguchi, who had once abandoned his homeland and then reclaimed it, he could not afford to abandon his homeland again.

However, that earnestness was not empathized with by many Japanese people. And with Isamu Noguchi, who came into the world as "Yone Noguchi's son," gaining high acclaim, Yonejiro now remains in people's memories as "Isamu Noguchi's father." The achievements of Yonejiro Noguchi, who spoke on equal terms with renowned international cultural figures and widely introduced Japanese culture to the world, are not something that will vanish.