The Columbia Anthology of Modern Japanese Literature
VOLUME 1
MODERN ASIAN LITERATURE
The Columbia Anthology of Modern Japanese Literature
VOLUME 1:
FROM RESTORATION TO OCCUPATION, 1868–1945
Edited by J. Thomas Rimer and Van C. Gessel
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS
NEW YORK
Columbia University Press wishes to express its appreciation for assistance given by the Pushkin Fund toward the cost of publishing this book.
The volume editors and Columbia University Press wish to express their appreciation for the generous subvention grant given by the College of Humanities at Brigham Young University toward the cost of publishing this book.
Columbia University Press
Publishers Since 1893
New York Chichester, West Sussex
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Copyright © 2005 Columbia University Press
All rights reserved
E-ISBN 978-0-231-52164-2
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The Columbia anthology of modern Japanese literature / edited by J. Thomas Rimer and Van C. Gessel.
p. cm.—(Modern Asian literature)
Includes bibliographical references.
Contents: v. 1. From restoration to occupation, 1868–1945—
ISBN 0-231-11860-0 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Japanese literature—1868—Translations into English.
I. Rimer, J. Thomas. II. Gessel, Van C. III. Series.
PL782.E1C55 2005
895.6’4408—dc22
2004056206
A Columbia University Press E-book.
CUP would be pleased to hear about your reading experience with this e-book at [email protected].
CONTENTS
Preface
Introduction
1. First Experiments
Fiction
Mori Ōgai
“The Dancing Girl”
San’yūtei Enchō
The Ghost Tale of the Peony Lantern
Tōkai Sanshi
Strange Encounters with Beautiful Women
Poetry
“Spring Blossoms into Flower”
“Butterflies”
Yuasa Hangetsu
“Twelve Stones”
Ueki Emori
“Liberty Song”
Ochiai Naobumi
“Song of the Faithful Daughter Shiragiku”
Shimazaki Tōson
“The Fox’s Trick”
“First Love”
Yosano Hiroshi
“Victory Arches”
“Withered Lotus”
Takeshima Hagoromo
“The Maiden Called Love”
2. Beginnings
Fiction
Futabatei Shimei
Drifting Clouds
Izumi Kyōka
“The Holy Man of Mount Kōya”
Kōda Rohan
The Icon of Liberty
Kunikida Doppo
“Meat and Potatoes”
Masamune Hakuchō
“The Clay Doll”
Mori Ōgai
“The Boat on the River Takase”
Nagai Kafū
“The Mediterranean in Twilight”
Ozaki Kōyō
The Gold Demon
Shimazaki Tōson
“The Life of a Certain Woman”
Tayama Katai
“The Girl Watcher”
Tokuda Shūsei
“The Town’s Dance Hall”
Tokutomi Roka
“Ashes”
Poetry in the International Style
Kodama Kagai
“The Suicide of an Unemployed Person”
“The Setting Sun”
Ishikawa Takuboku
“Better than Crying”
“Do Not Get Up”
“A Spoonful of Cocoa”
“After Endless Discussions”
Kawai Suimei
“Snowflame”
“Living Voice”
Kitahara Hakushū
“Anesthesia of Red Flowers”
“Spider Lilies”
“Kiss”
Yamamura Bochō
“Ecstasy”
“Dance”
“Mandala”
Takamura Kōtarō
“Bear Fur”
“A Steak Platter”
Kinoshita Mokutarō
“Nagasaki Style”
“Gold Leaf Brandy”
Yosano Akiko
“Beloved, You Must Not Die”
“In the First Person”
“A Certain Country”
“From Paris on a Postcard”
“The Heart of a Thirtyish Woman”
Poetry in Traditional Forms
Kanshi
Tanka and Haiku
Ishikawa Takuboku
Masaoka Shiki
Tanka
Haiku
Natsume Sōseki
Wakayama Bokusui
Yosano Akiko
“The Dancing Girl”
“Spring Thaw”
Essays
Natsume Sōseki
“The Civilization of Modern-Day Japan”
“My Individualism”
Yosano Akiko
“An Open Letter”
3. The Interwar Years
Fiction
Akutagawa Ryūnosuke
“The Nose”
“The Christ of Nanking”
Arishima Takeo
“The Clock that Does Not Move”
Edogawa Ranpo
“The Human Chair”
Hori Tatsuo
The Wind Has Risen
Inagaki Taruho
One-Thousand-and-One-Second Stories
Itō Sei
“A Department Store Called M”
Kajii Motojirō
“The Lemon”
Kawabata Yasunari
“The Dancing Girl of Izu”
Kobayashi Takiji
“The Fifteenth of March, 1928”
Kuroshima Denji
“A Flock of Circling Crows”
Miyamoto Yuriko
“A Sunless Morning”
Origuchi Shinobu
Writings from the Dead
Shiga Naoya
“The Diary of Claudius”
“The Paper Door”
“The Shopboy’s God”
Takeda Rintarō
“The Lot of Dire Misfortune”
Tani Jōji
“The Shanghaied Man”
Tanizaki Jun’ichirō
“The Two Acolytes”
Uno Kōji
“Landscape with Withered Tree”
Yokomitsu Riichi
“Mount Hiei”
Poetry in the International Style
Takamura Kōtarō
“Cathedral in the Thrashing Rain”
Hagiwara Sakutarō
“On a Trip”
“Bamboo”
“Sickly Face at the Bottom of the Ground”
“The One Who’s in Love with Love”
“The Army”
“The Corpse of a Cat”
Miyazawa Kenji
“Spring & Asura”
“The Morning of the Last Farewell”
“November 3rd”
Nishiwak
i Junzaburō
Seven Poems from Ambarvalia
No Traveler Returns
Kitasono Katsue
“Collection of White Poems”
“Vin du masque”
“Words”
Two Poems
“Almost Midwinter”
Kitasono’s First Letter to Ezra Pound
Nakano Shigeharu
“Imperial Hotel”
“Song”
“Paul Claudel”
“Train”
“The Rate of Exchange”
Poetry in Traditional Forms
Akutagawa Ryūnosuke
Kitahara Hakushū
Mitsuhashi Takajo
Ogiwara Seisensui
Okamoto Kanoko
Ozaki Hōsai
Saitō Mokichi
Shaku Chōkū
Sugita Hisajo
Taneda Santōka
Yamaguchi Seishi
Drama
Kishida Kunio
The Swing
Tanizaki Jun’ichirō
Okuni and Gohei
Essays
Kobayashi Hideo
“Literature of the Lost Home”
Satō Haruo
“Discourse on ‘Elegance’”
4. The War Years
Fiction
Dazai Osamu
“December 8th”
Ishikawa Tatsuzō
Soldiers Alive
Kajiyama Toshiyuki
“The Clan Records”
Nakajima Atsushi
“The Ox Man”
Ōoka Shōhei
Taken Captive
Ōta Yōko
“Fireflies”
Shimao Toshio
“The Departure Never Came”
Uno Chiyo
“A Wife’s Letters”
Poetry in the International Style
Takamura Kōtarō
“The Elephant’s Piggy Bank”
“The Final Battle for the Ryūkyū Islands”
Yoshida Issui
“Swans”
Kusano Shinpei
“Mount Fuji”
Oguma Hideo
“Long, Long Autumn Nights”
Poetry in Traditional Forms
Saitō Sanki
Toki Zenmaro
“Evidence”
Essays
Hagiwara Sakutarō
“Return to Japan”
Kobayashi Hideo
“On Impermanence”
“Taima”
Sakaguchi Ango
“A Personal View of Japanese Culture”
Bibliography
PREFACE
An anthology can look only backward. Even in the process of assembling and editing this collection, which has taken us several years, other, newer works of high merit have appeared, and older ones have asserted fresh claims to be included as well. For The Columbia Anthology of Modern Japanese Literature, we have attempted to assemble a series of works from the 1870s to the present. The issues at stake here, however, are complex. To many readers, the written word as a primary and privileged means to engage with the “deep sense of self that comes from the act of reading, in a true spirit,”1 now seems to be in the process of being replaced by the culture of the electronic image. In contrast, most of what is contained in this anthology moves the reader backward from what might be termed a postmodern stance toward those decades before the rise of the electronic media. We have provided what we hope is a representative sample of works that convey, for their authors and their readers alike, the thoughts and feelings that only the culture of the printed word can offer.
We cannot say that no contemporary Japanese literature of scope and ambition is now being written and read. The newest works included here have been composed with a level of skill, sophistication, and purpose as appropriate to the current moment as any of the works were that came before them. Whatever the level of young people’s interest in Japanese manga (comics) and video games may be, literature, as opposed to simple entertainment, often remains the best way to grapple with the problems, and ironies, of the present generation in Japan. Indeed, we have assembled this anthology because we believe that it provides a relevant, resonant experience of Japanese culture not otherwise available.
The students and other readers who use this book will find a generous sampling of the literary corpus of Japan since the 1870s, Japan’s so-called modern period. The intellectual sketch map that this book provides needs to be absorbed before moving on to a higher engagement with the texts, theories, and multitudinous disciplinary readings that belong to Japanese (or any other) literature. Just as attempts to allow students to “perform” in a foreign language are doomed to failure unless they have been given a basic vocabulary and a sense of the grammar, so an intelligent study of literature requires that students have a body of texts to discuss.
Other anthologies of what is generally termed “modern Japanese literature” have preceded this one, and surely many others will follow. One difference, however, between this volume and some of the earlier collections is related to the evolving view of both Japanese and foreign scholars as to what constitutes “literature.” Many of the earlier collections sought, consciously or unconsciously, to privilege the long and elegant aesthetic traditions of Japan as they were transformed and manifested anew in modern works. For several generations, this view of Japanese literature prevailed and perhaps culminated in the awarding of the Nobel Prize for Literature to Kawabata Yasunari in 1968. By common consent, some of the greatest twentieth-century Japanese literary works can be categorized in this fashion. But many other kinds of writing, ranging from detective stories to political accounts—always valued by Japanese readers but neglected by translators in the early postwar decades—can now be sampled here.
In addition, our own definition of what constitutes literature extends beyond the prose fictional narrative. In this book, we also have included poetry, in both its traditional and its modern forms, as well as representative play texts and essays. But one shortcoming of this anthology—an inevitable one, in our view—is the absence of longer works of prose fiction, simply for reasons of space. It would be a serious misrepresentation of the period, however, if readers thought that some of the most significant writers of the past hundred years—Natsume Sōseki, Shiga Naoya, Tanizaki Jun’ichirō, Shimazaki Tōson, Mishima Yukio, Ōe Kenzaburō, and so many others—wrote only short pieces. In a few cases here, we provide excerpts from longer works as a way of calling attention to their importance, from both a literary and a historical point of view. The bibliography at the end of this volume lists a variety of the longer works that have been translated into English.
The items that we have chosen for this book reflect the convictions and enthusiasms of both of us as editors. We have attempted to chronicle a long native tradition’s encounter with and response to the newly introduced writings of Western nations. Japanese writers of the modern age—which begins with the opening of the country to the West in the late 1860s—were conscious of the weight of their own traditions. But they also were inspired by the different approaches to writing they discovered in Western literature, first made available to them at the end of the nineteenth century.
Consequently, the history of modern literature in Japan is largely the story of the interactions between the native tradition and the imported forms and styles, in every genre of writing. The Meiji period (1868–1912) was a time of grand experiment in literature, and since then the pendulum has swung back and forth as writers have tried to imitate what they saw in Western drama, fiction, and poetry or, alternatively, to hang on to what they regarded as the essence of their past.
For the two centuries preceding the opening of Japan to the West, native literary traditions had been developing inside the boundaries of what Donald Keene called a “world within walls.”2 In the early seventeenth century, the new Tokugawa military regime sealed off the country to virtually all foreign interaction, prohibited Japanese citiz
ens from leaving the islands, and wiped out the vestiges of the initial Western influence by expelling the Catholic missionaries and “reconverting” the swelling Japanese Christian population through brutal torture—all in the name of preserving domestic tranquillity and social stability. Although poetry, drama, and the prose narrative flourished early in the seclusion period—the haiku of Bashō, the new dramatic forms of kabuki and the puppet theater, and the detached, witty stories of Saikaku—by the mid-nineteenth century the literary pond, bereft of outlets and with all fresh streams dammed off, had become increasingly stagnant. It was, to paraphrase Bashō’s famous verse, time for a new frog to jump into the old pond.
The “black ships” of Commodore Matthew Perry that came steaming into Edo Bay in the summer of 1853 started in motion the ripple effect that stirred the waters of this isolated pond and opened new vistas to writers of every persuasion. One of the most influential intellectual imports in these early years was the literature of Europe and, later, of the United States. Over a hundred-year period, starting with the founding of the Meiji era in 1868, the Japanese literary scene became a kind of experimental laboratory in which many new ingredients were brought in from foreign suppliers—new notions of the self; theories of romanticism and naturalism, democracy and individual freedom, gender and social equality; the rights of the working class; modernism and postmodernism; an après guerre existentialism in tandem with a dedicated Marxist materialism—and each new ingredient was tested, reinvented, transformed, retested, and either ingested or disgorged. The resulting literary creations are at times amusing—particularly in the earlier periods—yet always instructive and usually of extraordinary quality.
Our goal for this anthology of modern Japanese literature thus has been to provide a broad and informed tasting from the rich feast that has been spread out for consumption over the last century and a quarter. More than half the contents of the anthology are from previously published sources such as earlier anthologies, small journals, and other venues; the remainder were specially commissioned for this collection or, occasionally, culled from previously unpublished sources. Our deepest thanks go to our skilled and committed translators, without whose heartfelt labors this preface would also be the afterword.
At Columbia University Press, we wish to thank Jennifer Crewe, our wonderfully supportive editorial director, and Margaret Yamashita and Irene Pavitt, wise and sensitive editors. We also wish to express our gratitude to Paula Locante at the University of Pittsburgh for invaluable assistance in assembling the manuscript; Dr. Mel Thorne and his able student staff in the Humanities Publication Center at Brigham Young University; Aaron P. Cooley, Phillip Shaw, and Michael Allred, students at Brigham Young University who helped with text input; and the College of Humanities at Brigham Young University for a generous publication subvention grant.
The Columbia Anthology of Modern Japanese Literature: From Restoration to Occupation, 1868-1945: vol. 1 (Modern Asian Literature Series) Page 1
