Quotes from Yoshisaburo Okakura's books, and about them
The Japanese Spirit on Kojiki: “One thing is certain about them, that they were not free from influences exerted by the different myths prevalent among the Chinese and the Indians at the time when they were written down in our earliest history, the Ko-ji-ki or Records of Ancient Matter, completed in A.D. 712.”
The Japanese Spirit on Analects: “We are told that a certain prince was put under the tutorship of a learned Corean scholar of Chinese, who, at the request of the emperor, came over to Japan with the Confucian Analects (Iun-yue) and some other Chinese classics as a tribute from the King of Kudara.”
The Japanese Spirit on Classic of Filial Piety: “The Hsiao King, or the 'Sacred Book of Filial Piety,' which is supposed to record conversations held between Confucius and his disciple Tsang Ts'an on that weighty subject, has the following passage:”
The Japanese Spirit on Lotus Sutra: “The sonorous reading of the Book of Filial Piety was heard all over the country, echoing with the loud recital of the Myoho-renge-kyo (or Saddharma Pundarika Sutra).”
The Japanese Spirit on Tao Te Ching: “…Laoism, through the wonderful Tao-teh-king, a small book by Lao-tze himself, but especially through Chwang-tze, a work in ten books by his famous follower Chwang-chow, has exercised considerable influence on our thought for twelve centuries, a word about it may not be out of place before we go on to consider the doctrine of Shakya-muni.”
The Japanese Spirit on Zhuangzi: “…Laoism, through the wonderful Tao-teh-king, a small book by Lao-tze himself, but especially through Chwang-tze, a work in ten books by his famous follower Chwang-chow, has exercised considerable influence on our thought for twelve centuries, a word about it may not be out of place before we go on to consider the doctrine of Shakya-muni.”
The Japanese Spirit on Man'yoshu: “Here is one of the earliest odes to Fujiyama, contained in a collection of lyrical poems called Man-yo-shu, or 'Myriad Leaves,' by Prince Moroe (died A.D. 757), somewhere in the first half of the eighth century:”
The Japanese Spirit on Japan: An Attempt at Interpretation: “…down to the admirable Interpretation written last year by the late Mr. Lafcadio Hearn, in whose death Japan lost one of her most precious friends, possessing as he did the scholar's insight and the poet's pen, two heavenly gifts seldom found united in a single man.”
The Japanese Spirit on Bushido: The Soul of Japan: “As for books on the subject from the pen of the Japanese themselves, Dr. Nitobe's Bushido, Explanations of the Japanese Thought, and my brother K. Okakura's Ideals of the East, besides a volume by several well-known Japanese, entitled Japan by the Japanese, are to be specially mentioned.”
The Japanese Spirit on The Ideals of the East: “As for books on the subject from the pen of the Japanese themselves, Dr. Nitobe's Bushido, Explanations of the Japanese Thought, and my brother K. Okakura's Ideals of the East, besides a volume by several well-known Japanese, entitled Japan by the Japanese, are to be specially mentioned.”