Japan's introduction to Western literature came though American literature, as things European were imported to Japan via the United States. Prior to World War II, the Japanese read such writers as Washington Irving, Poe, and Hawthorne, partly to practice their English. Today these writers are less popular in Japan, but younger Japanese scholars are turning more and more attention to Herman Melville. This book is the first English-language volume of Japanese scholarship on Melville. With chapters contributed by the leading scholars in Japan, it presents a variety of attitudes from the traditional to the new.
Following the introduction, the volume opens with a chapter by Kenzaburo Ohashi on Melville's reception in Japan. The next chapter discusses the literary interaction between Hawthorne and Melville after
Moby-Dick
, and is followed by two chapters on
. Chapter 5 discusses Melville's transcendentalism. Additional chapters cover Israel Porter
The Confidence Man
,
Clarel,
Melville's later poetry, and
Billy Budd
. The work concludes with a bibliographical essay on Japanese scholarship and includes a full subject index.