This portrait charts the varied history of the acceptance and adoption of the Japanese poetic form Haiku into British culture.

This essay considers James Kirkup's (1918-2009) poetical encounter with Japan, in particular his fifty-year engagement with haiku.

Deeply attached to English life as he was, the poet Ralph Hodgson (1871-1962) uprooted himself and spent twelve years in Japan. This essay considers his profound love for England twinned with a truly internationally-minded outlook.

The poet Robert Nichols (1893-1944) provides an example of extreme culture shock suffered by a British visitor to Japan, and this portrait charts his poetic career and interactions with Japan as a foreign teacher at Tokyo University.