Four Japanese in Search of Henry Miller

Nearly ten years before the United States Supreme Court ruling that made American author Henry Miller a household name, the Japanese courts had ruled that Miller’s literature was art, and not pornographic. Consequently, beginning in the 1950s, Miller started shifting his attention more intently to the island nation of Japan. With his rising fame across Japan, various Japanese individuals sought to learn more about this controversial figure. By incorporating archival materials, field research, and interviews, this article focuses on four of these Japanese men who have had a calculable impact on Miller’s reputation in Japan. Three them were in correspondence with Miller, another has become one of the foremost specialists in Henry Miller studies in the world. What is revealed herein is the decades-long personal relationship between Miller and Japan that has hitherto been unexplored by Miller scholars and biographers.