The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1904-05-20
JAPANESE LITERATURE.
Development of the Novel in Cherry
Blossom Land.


! Critic: Up to 1895, novel writing
was not looked upon as a respectable
profession. The public would not per
nit 1T to be called gentleman's work
| 1t was regarded as an objectionable
diversion Of unworthy prodigies The
authors We're accused of being a de-
moralizing influence. However, the
fault may be with them, since they in
dulged, often provoldngly, in the de-
! piction of the lower class of women.
The geisha was their favorite heroine.
am told that Ogai Mort was often
warned by his surgeon general (Ogai
was higher army doctor) that he
would shorten his dignity by his novel
! publication. There is no place like the
Japanese army where even an i'll fitting
| dignity is necessary. Once for some
years Ogai stopped writing, seeing
! himself in danger of losing his place
What prejudice! But happily such
a thing couldn't happen today, when
the invasion of western thought has
/ cleared it off. Authors have come to
command respect. They couldn't make
ago, but today they are on the fair
road to prosperity, the public demand
! 'Or literature of any sort having ire
nitudously increased. They will put
price on their writing, counting the
pages, If not the words, like Ameri-
cans. Nearly all the young students
| turned to writer's at once. Hence the
''ertlow of novels in 1899 and 1900!
Not one in hundred had literary
merit-too often alas! they verged on
the coarse and scandalous. The books
were hardly pictures of human life.
/ What could those young writer's tender
| brains know? The gentleman above
80 would not bestow even a glance
upon their work. Where is the hu-
man INTEREST,"" lie would sternly de-
n I.,A
reads. The books circulate only among
1 the students, who are glad to be i'm
(. beetle. They lost the public respect
at once. which they had gained after
| the hardest battle. You will see no
more Of literary events today Com
| mercialism has destroyed everything.
4 And the we'll established authors, like
I TSubouch. Koyo or Roban, did not
come to the rescue in the crisis. For
| the last three years the public is de-
nouncing the modern novel. So it is in
! America, isn't it? Japan Is also float
| ing up and down on the worlds cur
! rent
The literary newspapers have been
/, growing in power for the last ten years.
Soho Tokutomi is the most prominent
| figure in the field, whose artistic writ
ing, sensible conception and frequently
! witty reporting are nothing but the
best literature. Minoru Kuga of the
| Nippon (T newspaper is not without
] honor; MS lISld style has been Il tonic
| for the younger minds. Now the In
| tellectual Japanese are welcoming the
| newspapers with a greater respect than
they ever showed before permanently
forsaking the feeble speculations of
novels. And the students of serious
bent are turning to scientific study TO
real experiment, to practical works.
Their eyes are set upon the spheres of
social philosophy, psyGfcal analysis
and exact evidence. There has been
no time in the past thrty-si yenrs
when there was exhibited such d seri-
Gus thirst for western intellectual
books.
And the public discovered only year
or so ago that the reading OF western
novels was the very way to feed their
minds spiritually. They are ready to
admit their immeasurable superiority
to the native writing. Their transla-
ton has astonishingly increased with
the downfall of the native authors
4 Some fifty books We're translated in
last year. the younger Dumas Ca
MILE" Victor Hugos "Notre Dame"
Alphone Daudets "Nabob." George
Eliots "Romoa," Hawthorne's Scarlet
Letter. and Maeterlinck's plays being
among them.
And the philosophical mind has talk :
en- up Emerson. A few TRANSACTIONS Of
his works have already appeared. Aud
the Student, a semi-monthly publ
cation for the study of the English
language and literature, issued its
Carlyle number last September and in
directly denounced the present condi-
tiou of ,Japcn.