Exhibition Shows Keene’s Interactions with Showa-Era Writers in Tokyo, Features Newspaper Columns, Related Materials

By Futoshi Mori / Japan News Senior Writer

12:47 JST, February 6, 2026

An exhibition focusing on items that record the friendships between Japanese literature scholar Donald Keene (1922-2019) and writers he met during the Showa era is being held at the Asukayama Museum in Kita Ward, Tokyo.

Keene wrote “Remaining Voices: Record of My Literary Circle” in a newspaper column across 57 installments starting in 1992, the year he turned 70.

The exhibition features approximately 40 items, including panels displaying the newspaper columns and related materials concerning authors such as Yasunari Kawabata, Yukio Mishima, Junichiro Tanizaki and Kafu Nagai.

In his column about Nagai, Keene wrote:

“Kafu was truly a man of unremarkable appearance. His clothes were nothing special, and the front buttons on his trousers were all undone. When he began to speak, I noticed most of his upper front teeth were missing. Yet, as I listened to him talk, such negative impressions vanished without a trace. The Japanese he spoke was so beautiful, unlike anything I had ever heard before.”

A poster for the film “With Beauty and Sorrow” based on Kawabata’s novel “Beauty and Sadness” features a close-up of actress Mariko Kaga. A record of the opera “Yuzuru” based on Junji Kinoshita’s original work is also on display.

The exhibition runs through May 31. The museum is closed on Mondays except when Monday is a holiday. It is open from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and admission is free.