At court Kynaston was the centre of a literary coterie.

The heady smells of burning opium, joss-sticks, and tobacco smoked through the hubble-bubble, produced an atmosphere much sought after by the literary and artistic coterie of fin-de-siècle London.

This group evolved into the Shirakaba (White Birch) literary coterie, and began publishing a literary magazine of the same name in 1910.

In October 1912, he joined the literary coterie of Hotogisu, and was introduced to Izumi Kyoka.

While serving at a temple in the north of Kyūshū, he was a member of Ōtomo no Tabito's literary coterie.

A darling of London's literary coterie, he had hands like root vegetables and had never been farther south than Seaford.

He also participated in the literary coterie centered on the literary journal Kawa ("River"), to which he contributed monthly from 1928.

In 1958, he formed a literary coterie with Mishima Yukio, Ōoka Shōhei and others called the Hachi-no-ki-kai.

He also reinserted himself into a small literary coterie of friends, among them now, André Gide.