／45　戦友・司馬遼太郎との絆

　1971年晩秋、ドナルド・キーンさんは司馬遼太郎と出会った。キーンさんを文学界へ見いだした中央公論社の嶋中鵬二社長の肝いりで、両者による対談が企画されたのだ。ところが、「竜馬がゆく」などの歴史小説で国民的作家になっていた司馬のことを、キーンさんは知ってはいたものの、一冊も読んだことがなかった。

　「日本人と日本文化」のタイトルで翌年に出版された対談集が、英訳されて2016年に出版された際に、キーンさんはそんな思い出を巻頭で明かしている。

My share of The People and Culture of Japan began with a telephone call from an editor who informed me of a crisis. Shiba Ryotaro, the most popular writer in Japan, had agreed to participate in a dialogue for his magazine, but the scholar who was scheduled to be Shiba's counterpart in the dialogue had been stricken with illness. The editor asked if I would serve as his substitute. My first response was to refuse on the grounds that I had not read Shiba's books and felt unqualified to engage in a dialogue with him. The editor called again, this time to say that Shiba had requested that I not read his books.…