In one of his latest books, a charming series of essays under the title "Through the Torii," Yone Noguchi, the Japanese poet, laments not without some bitterness the passing of the spirit of old Japan under the contaminating influence of the West. The transformation, in the poet's view, is one of the tragedies of modern art. In one of his apothegms, he complains:
"Not only Boston beans, also the Boston literature seems lately developing in Japan: the difference is that our Japanese
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.