Reginald Horace Blyth
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Reginald Horace Blyth (December 3, 1898 - October 28, 1964), English author and devotee of Japanese culture.
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[edit] Early life
Born in Essex, England, the son of a railway clerk, Reginald Horace Blyth grew up to be a strong and idealistic young man. In 1916, at the height of World War I, he was imprisoned at Wormwood Scrubs as a conscientious objector and a pacifist. After the war, he attended London University, which he graduated from in 1923, with honours.
Blyth was a multi-talented man. He played the flute, made musical instruments, and had taught himself to speak numerous European languages. In 1924, he got his teaching certificate from London Day Training College. The same year, he married Annie Bercovitch, a university friend. Some accounts say they moved to India, where he taught for a while until he became unhappy with British colonial rule. Other scholars dismiss this episode, claiming it to have been invented by Blyth's mentor Suzuki Daisetsu. (Pinnington, 1997).
[edit] Korea (1925-1935)
In 1925, the Blyths moved to Korea (then under Japanese rule), where Blyth became Assistant Professor of English at Keijo University in Seoul. While in Korea, Blyth began to learn Japanese and Chinese, and studied Zen under Kayama Taizi Roshi of Myoshinji Betsuin. In 1933, he informally adopted a Korean student, paying for his studies in Korea and London. (Pinnington, 1997). His wife returned to England alone in 1934. He later followed her and they were divorced shortly thereafter, in 1935.
[edit] Japan (1936-1964)
Returning to Seoul in 1936, Blyth remarried in 1937, to Japanese Kishima Tomiko (Pinnington, 1997), with whom he later had two daughters, named Nana Blyth and Harumi Blyth. He moved to Kanazawa in Japan, and took a job as English teacher at a local high school.
When the Second World War started, Blyth was interned as a British enemy alien. Although he expressed his sympathy for Japan and sought Japanese citizenship, this was denied. During his internment his extensive library was destroyed by a bombing raid.
After the war, Blyth worked diligently with the authorities, both Japanese and American, to ease the transition to peace. Blyth functioned as liaison to the Japanese Imperial Household, and his close friend, Harold G. Henderson, was on General Douglas MacArthur's staff. Together, they helped draft the declaration Ningen Sengen, by which the Emperor Hirohito declared himself to be a human being, and not divine.
By 1946, Blyth had become Professor of English at Gakushuin University, and tutored Crown Prince (later emperor) Akihito in English. He did much to popularize Zen philosophy and Japanese poetry (particularly haiku) in the West. In 1956, he was awarded a doctorate in literature from Tokyo University, and, in 1957, he received the Zuihosho (Order of Merit) Fourth Grade.
Reginald Horace Blyth died, in 1964, of a brain tumor and complications from pneumonia, in the Seiroka Hospital in Tokyo. He was buried in the cemetery of the Shokozan Tokeiji Soji Zenji in Kamakura, next to his old friend, D. T. Suzuki.
[edit] References
Selected works by R.H. Blyth:
- Zen in English Literature and Oriental Classics, The Hokuseido Press, 1942
- Haiku, 1949-1952
- Senryu: Japanese Satirical Verses, The Hokuseido Press, 1949 ISBN 0-8371-2958-3
- Japanese Life and Character in Senryu, 1959
- Oriental Humor , 1959
- Zen and Zen Classics, in five volumes, The Hokuseido Press, 1960, 1962, 1964, 1966, 1970
- Edo Satirical Verse Anthology , 1961
- Games Zen masters play : writings of R. H. Blyth, 1976
About R.H. Blyth:
- Ikuyo Yoshimura, The Life of R. H. Blyth, 1996
- Robert Aitken, Original Dwelling Place, 1996
- Pinnington, A. Ch. 19, R.H. Blyth in Britain & Japan: Biographical Portraits; Japan Society; 1994; ISBN 1-873410-27-1
