「日本において中世英語英文学を担ったパイオニアたち」
野口俊一（1933-2011）
向井	  毅（福岡女子大学教授）
相田周一（大阪府立大学准教授）
Shunichi Noguchi（野口俊一、1933-2011）-- An Arthurian Knight-Scholar
Tsuyoshi Mukai (Fukuoka Women’s University)
Shuichi Aita (Osaka Prefectural University)
Shunichi Noguchi（野口俊一）was born in Phyŏngsan-kun near Pyongyang（黄海道平山群）and brought up in Kurayoshi, Tottori Prefecture（鳥取県倉吉). He went toHiroshima University to read English language and literature, where he was taught by
Michio Masui and Jiro Ogawa. In 1964 he received a scholarship from the BritishCouncil, by the kind offices of Fumio Kuriyagawa, to pursue his research on Malory
under the guidance of Eugène Vinaver of the University of Manchester and Derek
Brewer of the University of Birmingham, and consequently returned to Japan withexpertise in textual criticism, a specialisation which was extraordinary in the Japanese
academic community of his generation, and yet laid the foundation of themanuscript/early book studies that would be vigorously undertaken in Japan from the1980s onwards. This was a pivotal experience in the development of his scholarly career.
After teaching for nine years at Fukui University, he moved to Osaka University ofEducation in 1971 and there devoted himself to research and teaching activities inmedieval English studies for more than a quarter of a century until his retirement in1998. Undoubtedly he was a distinguished professor of high integrity and unflinching
personality, attracting not only many fellow scholars by offering helpful advice andsuggestions based on his wide intellectual interests, but also many young students byshowing them the authenticity and quintessence of English studies. Almost his every
utterance, whether in his tutorials or while strolling together, was directed towards
improving their understanding of a textual problem or clarifying the crux of an issue
under discussion amongst his colleagues.
He extended generous help and assistance to any institution that requested it ofhim. Among other things, his assiduous devotion to enhancing the quality of articles
contributed to academic journals was noteworthy; he served on the editorial board of theEnglish Literary Society of Japan and the Japan Society for Medieval English Studies.

He also played an important role as a leading member in the Centre for Medieval
English Studies (Tokyo) by editing newsletters and a series of academic publications.
His particular declarations, insisting for example on the intrinsic differences between
the terms ‘Eibungaku Kenkyu’（英文学研究）and ‘English studies’, are surely still echoing
in the minds of those who heard him speak. Such great love of his chosen foreign
language and culture is amply illustrated by his numerous precisely written English
articles, but it can also be demonstrated by his long and faithful membership of theBritish Branch of the International Arthurian Society, while his effortless bilingualism
is proved by his stunningly sudden shifts from Japanese to English during his lecturesand classes.
As John Lawlor put it, Noguchi had a ‘true gift of friendship’. It is testified by thepublication of two festschrifts acknowledging his warmheartedness towards others
along with his wealth of academic achievements—Arthurian and Other Studies(Cambridge, 1993) and Essays on English Literature and Language (Tokyo, 1997). Therealso took place a symposium in his memory entitled ’Malory and his Tradition’, held aspart of the 2011 International Arthurian Congress (Japan Branch). In the tributesession, Noguchi’s working copies of Vinaver-Field’s three-volume edition were shownon slides. The margins of each page were adorned (!) with his characteristically tiny andtidy handwritten annotations. These textual notes were breathtakingly elegant andwere unquestionably the result of his rigorous, insightful collation methodology. One
glance at the page below should suffice to convince us that he, like Chaucer, truly
considered ‘wordes’ to be ‘deedes’. (As for the figure of Noguchi as a knight-scholar, seeToshiyuki Takamiya’s succinct obituary of him.「頑固一徹の侍―野口俊一先生を偲んで」『本の世界はへんな世界』（2012）所収)
Noguchi’s respect for the written text did not restrict itself to Arthurian studies;whilst being an avid reader of English literature in general, over the years he produced
and published specific textual studies ranging from Beowulf to Ulysses. In his later
years, as is seen in the publication list, he became interested in the communicative orperformative aspect of literary works and emphasised the need to read the text aloud for
a complete and comprehensive interpretation. Noguchi’s culminating scholarly
contribution was an article on the metrical system in Chaucer’s Troilus. In this andrelated writings, he seems to be declaring to us, ‘Read aloud, in order to reveal the facts.’	  	  	  	 Publications  by  Shunichi  Noguchi    Article  (and  Edition)  1961
‘Malory’s English － An Aspect of its Syntax’, Hiroshima Studies in English
Language and Literature, Vol. 7, No. 2 (Hiroshima: The English Literary
Association of Hiroshima University, 1961), 130-37.
‘The Language of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’, Hiroshima Studies in English
Language and Literature, Vol. 8, No. 1 (Hiroshima: The English Literary
Association of Hiroshima University, 1961), 76-91.
1962‘Notes on the Language of the Paston Letters in Relation with London English’, inMichio Masui’s ‘‘A Joint Study of the Language of the Paston Letters’’, Hiroshima

University Studies (Literature Department), No. 20 (Hiroshima, 1962), 291-300.
‘Kindai-hyōjun-eigo-no

Kigen-ni

Kansuru

Ichi-chōsa’(inJapanese)[‘An

Investigation Research Concerning the Origin of Modern Standard English’],
Bulletin of the Faculty of the Liberal Arts, Fukui University, Part I, the Humanities,
No. 11 (Fukui, 1962), 1-16.
1963‘Richard Rolle-no ‘‘fire of love’’―Shūkyōteki-na Keiken-o Arawasu Hiyu- hyōgen’ (inJapanese) [‘Richard Rolle’s ‘‘fire of love’’ － Figurative Expression of ReligiousExperience’], in Michio Masui’s ‘‘Hyōgen-to-shite-no Eigo-gaku’’ [‘‘English Philology
as a Study of English Expression’’], Eigo-Kyoiku (Journal of English Teaching), Vol.
12, No. 9 (Tokyo: Taishukan, 1963), 20-1.
‘Malory-no Sakuhin-no Winchester MS-to Caxton’s Edition-to-no Gengotekisai-ni-tuite-no Nōto’ (in Japanese) [‘Notes on Linguistic Differences Between theWinchester MS and Caxton’s Edition of Malory’s Works’], Bulletin of the Faculty ofthe Liberal Arts, Fukui University, Part I, the Humanities, No. 12 (Fukui, 1963), 1-7.
1964
‘Separability in Malory’s Syntax－the Group-genitive’, Bulletin of the Faculty of theLiberal Arts, Fukui University, Part I, the Humanities, No. 13 (Fukui, 1964), 1-4.
1967
‘The Paradox of the Character of Malory’s Language’, Hiroshima Studies in English
Language and Literature, Vol. 13, No. 2 (Hiroshima, 1967), 115-34.
‘Corrigenda’ (on Collaboration with A.O. Sandved and Ján Šimko), The Works of Sir
Thomas Malory, 2nd Edition, ed. Eugène Vinaver (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1967),
pp. 1753-56.
1971‘Malory and the Consolation of Style’, Studies in English Literature, English
Number 1971 (Tokyo: The English Literary Society of Japan, 1971), 35-53.
1977‘Caxton’s Malory’, Poetica, No. 8 (Tokyo: Shubun International, 1977), 72-84.
1979‘Caxton-ga Malory-no Buntai-kara Manandakoto’ (in Japanese) [‘What did Caxton
Learn from Malory’s Style?’], Chūsei-Eibungaku Danwakai Kaihō [Bulletin of theColloquium for Medieval English Studies], No. 17 (Tokyo: Colloquium for Medieval
English Studies, 1979), 6-7.
1980
‘Eugène Vinaver: In Memoriam’, Eigo Seinen [The Rising Generation], Vol. 125, No.
11 (Tokyo: Kenkyusha, 1980), 510-11; reprinted in Medieval English Studies Pastand Present, ed. by Akio Oizumi and Toshiyuki Takamiya (Tokyo: Eichosha, 1990),
pp. 302-304.
1981‘Englishness in Malory’, Aspects of Malory, ed. Toshiyuki Takamiya and DerekBrewer (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 1981; reprinted 1986), pp. 17-26.
‘Writing in Malory’, Poetica, No. 12 (Tokyo: Shubun International, 1981), 82-93.
1982‘Robin Huddo-to Āsā-ou’ (in Japanese) [‘Robin Hood and King Arthur’], Igirisu-no
Seikatsu-to Bunka Jiten [A Dictionary of British Life and Culture], ed. Shinsuke
Ando and others (Tokyo: Kenkyusha, 1982), pp. 916-25.
1983‘On a Certain Poem in Yeats’s Last Poems’, Masui Michio Sensei Taikan Kinen‘‘Eigo-Eibungaku Kenkyu’’ [Studies in English Language and Literature Presented
to Professor Michio Masui on the Occasion of his Retirement], ed. Hiroshige Yoshida(Tokyo: Kenkyusha, 1983), pp. 411-19.
1984‘Caxton’s Malory Again’, Poetica, No. 20 (Tokyo: Shubun International, 1984), 33-8.
1985‘Malory-to Shārotto-no Otome Erein’ (in Japanese) [‘Malory et puella de Escalot’],
Gengo-Bunka [Lingua et Humanitas, Universitas Meiji-Gakuin], Vol. 3 (Tokyo:Meiji-Gakuin Studium Linguae Humanitatisque, 1985), 66-70.
‘Āsā-ou Densetsu’, ‘Chūsei’ (in Japanese) [‘Arthurian Legend’, ‘Middle Ages’],Hikari-no Imejarī [Imagery of Light], ed. Bunsei Uesugi (Tokyo: Kirihara-shoten,1985), pp. 228-51 and 369-78.
‘To ‘‘make it good’’ upon Malory Scholars’, Medieval English Studies Newsletter, No.
13 (Tokyo: Centre for Medieval English Studies, 1985), 3-4.
1986

‘W.B. Yeats: his ‘‘Memory’’ and Memories’, Eishi Hyōron [Essays on Poetry], No. 3(Hiroshima: Chūgoku-Shikoku Igirisu Romanha Gakkai [Chūgoku-Shikoku Circlefor Studying English Romantic Poetry], 1986), 3-7.
1987
‘Dom’, Key-Word Studies in Beowulf 2 (Tokyo: Centre for Medieval English Studies,1987), 1-4.
‘Chaucer’s Use of Coward and Cowardice’, Key-Word Studies in Chaucer 2 (Tokyo:Centre for Medieval English Studies, 1987), 75-7.
1988‘Beowulf and Sothæstra Dom’, Terasawa Yoshio Kyōju Kanreki Kinen Ronbunshu[Philologia Anglica: Essays Presented to Professor Yoshio Terasawa on the Occasionof his Sixtieth Birthday], ed. Kinshiro Oshitari and others (Tokyo: Kenkyusha,1988), pp. 251-58.
1989‘Malorian Knights: Their Humility and Patience’, In Geardagum X (Denver: Societyfor New Language Study, 1989), 19-27.
1990
Le Morte Arthur, ed. Shunichi Noguchi (Tokyo: Centre for Medieval English Studies,1990).
1992‘Fair in Chaucer and Unfæger’, Key-Word Studies in Beowulf and Chaucer 4 (Tokyo:Centre for Medieval English Studies, 1992), 35-40.
‘Chaucer’s Concept of Nature’, Chaucer to Shakespeare: Essays in Honour ofShinsuke Ando, ed. Toshiyuki Takamiya and Richard Beadle (Cambridge: D.S.
Brewer, 1992), pp. 25-31.
1993‘Pagan Consolation in the ‘‘Knight’s Tale’’’, Chūsei Eibungaku eno Junrei no Michi[A Pilgrimage Through Medieval English Literature: Essays Presented to Professor
Isamu Saito on the Occasion of his Sixtieth Birthday], ed. Hiroe Hutamura andothers (Tokyo: Nan’un-Do, 1993), 95-102.
‘Seeking in Beowulf and the State of the Hero’s Soul’, In Geardagum XIV (Denver:Society for New Language Study, 1993), 1-12.

1994‘Prayer in Chaucer’s Knight’s Tale’, Poetica, No. 41 (Tokyo: Shubun International,1994), 45-50.
1995‘The Character of English: An Inaugural Lecture’, Ōsaka Kyōiku Daigaku Kiyō
[Memoirs of Osaka University of Education], Ser. I Humanities, Vol. 43, No. 2(Osaka University of Education, 1995), 57-62.
‘Winchester Malory’, Arthuriana, Vol. 5, No. 2 (Southern Methodist University,1995), 15-23.
1996‘Riverside Chaucer (“Knight’s Tale”) Re-edited (based on MS Christ Church 152,Oxford)’, ed. Shunichi Noguchi, in Text and Language: Beowulf, Chaucer andRelated Works Vol. I (Tokyo: Centre for Medieval English Studies, 1996), 105-52.
1998‘Deloney the Versifier’, A Love of Words: Philological Studies of the EnglishLanguage in Honour of Akira Wada, ed. Kanno, Masahiko, Gregory K. Jember andYoshiyuki Nakao (Tokyo: Eihosha, 1998), pp. 133-43.
2000‘Beowulf and the (In)effectiveness of the Ancient ‘‘Curse’’’, Essays on Old, Middle,
Modern English and Old Icelandic: In Honour of Raymond P. Tripp, Jr, ed. Loren C.
Gruber, with the Assistance of Meredith Crellin Gruber, and Gregory K. Jember(Lewston: The Edwin Mellen Press, 2000), pp. 125-35.
2000‘Reading Malory’s Text Aloud’, The Malory Debate: Essays on the Texts of Le Morte
Darthur, ed. Bonnie Wheeler, Robert L. Kindrick and Michael N. Salda (Cambridge:D.S. Brewer, 2000), pp. 301-14.
2001
Text and Language: Beowulf, Chaucer and Related Works Vol. II, ed. Shunichi
Noguchi and Tadao Kubouchi (Tokyo: Centre for Medieval English Studies, 2001).
Lge 8vo 90 pp. Wrs. Incl S Noguchi (ed) Saint Gregory Legend (MS Vernon, English
Poetry a 1, Bodleian Library).
2004‘P.J.C. Field’s Worshipful Revision of Malory: Making a Virtue of Necessity’,
Arthurian Studies in Honour of P.J.C. Field, ed. Bonnie Wheeler (Cambridge: D.S.

Brewer, 2004), pp. 307-10.
‘How can we not mismetre Chaucer’s Troilus?’ Eighty Years of English Studies at
the Faculty of Arts, Rocnik LX, Philologica, Univerzity Komenskeho (Bratislava,2004), 258-68.
Review  1967
Aya Shimizu, Āsā-ou Densetsu (in Japanese) [A Study of Arthurian Legend] (Tokyo,1966), Eibungaku Kenkyu [Studies in English Literature], Vol. 44, No.1 (Tokyo: The
English Literary Society of Japan, 1967), 100-1 (in Japanse).
1968
Eugène Vinaver, ed. The Works of Sir Thomas Malory, 2nd Edition (Oxford:Clarendon Press, 1967), Hiroshima Studies in English Language and Literature,
Vol. 15, No. 1 (Hiroshima: The English Literary Association of Hiroshima
University, 1968), 41-6.
1978
Mark Lambert, Malory: Style and Vision in Le Morte Darthur (New Haven: YaleUniversity Press, 1975), Studies in English Literature, English Number 1978
(Tokyo: The English Literary Society of Japan, 1978), 120-24.
1984
Beverly Taylor and Elisabeth Brewer, The Return Of King Arthur (Cambridge: D.S.
Brewer, 1983), Eigo Seinen [The Rising Generation], Vol. 129, No. 12 (Tokyo:Kenkyusha, 1984), 608-9 (in Japanese).
2003
Keiko Ikegami, Barlaam and Josaphat: A Transcription of MS Egerton 876 withNotes, Glossary, and Comparative Study of Middle English and Japanese Versions(New York: AMS Press, 1999), Studies in English Literature, English Number 2003
(Tokyo: The English Literary Society of Japan, 2003), 80-3.