＜ドナルド・キーンが描いた日本――生誕100年に＞／32 日本ウオッチャーとしてデビュー
本人は、この時の気持ちを日本語でこう記した。
「それまで私はいくつかの雑誌にときどき日本印象記を書いてはいたが、私の本や記事の大部分は過去の文学と歴史に関するもので、同時代の日本についての観察をまとめようとは思ってもいなかった。一般読者向けの本を書くことにも自信はなかったが、自分の書くものが古典文学研究者以外の多くの人々に読んでもらえる点に魅力を感じた私は、さほど躊躇（ちゅうちょ）しないで、出版社の求めに応じることにした」
[「果てしなく美しい日本」（講談社学術文庫）の序文より]
結果として59年に「Living Japan」が英語で出版された。「果てしなく美しい日本」は後年に出たその日本語文庫版だ。
日本文学にとどまらず、関心を日本学へと広げつつあった若きウオッチャーのリポートとして読んでみるといい。戦後十数年を経た日本の等身大の姿を知る資料として貴重だ。
まず、人口集中が進む東京を中心とした概観から。
Tokyo is by some estimates the largest city in the world, with a population of about ten million. Because of Japanese traditions and taste, there are relatively few multiple dwellings even in Tokyo; instead, millions of private houses, many of them extremely flimsy, are jammed against one another so chaotically that finding a given house, even when one is in the immediate neighborhood, is no simple task. It does not usually help much to ask directions of a passer-by, for the chances are that he will have just arrived in Tokyo himself. Certain parts of downtown Tokyo still retain something of the atmosphere of the past, but the city is full of newcomers. Second and third sons of farmers from the outlying provinces arrive daily in Tokyo. One of their favorite professions is that of taxi-driver; almost invariably ignorant of the location of even the most famous spots in Tokyo -- the customer must direct them -- they send their little cars racing through the streets with all but suicidal abandon. They are not simply reckless: they are desperately anxious to pick up even one additional fare; they may be exhausted and under extreme nervous tension at the end of what is often a twenty-four hour shift; and likely as not they live under the additional strain of conditions of extreme hardship and crowding. Yet it does not take long for them to consider Tokyo their home, and the village from which they migrated a few months before becomes only a place to visit at New Year or on the Feast of the Dead in August. The fascination of Tokyo for the country boy was celebrated by the great poet Basho as long ago as 1684, when the city was still called Edo:
Aki to tose Autumn--this makes ten years:
Kaette Edo wo Now I actually mean Edo
Sasu kokyo When I say \