Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-07-05
new IDEAS IN THE ORIENT
EVOLUTION OF, LITERATURE
GOING ON IN JAPAN.
Remarkable Transformation in the
Social Life Of the Island En-
pire-The Poet Of Okubo.


pire-The Poet of Okubo.
H. Asakawa in the Atlantic Monthly.
NO attempt will here be made to
sketch the evolution Of literature in new
Japan. or to treat the present period as
chapter in the twelve centuries OF the
literary history of the nation. The former
subject. dating as 1t does from about
1880, seems hardly to have acquired
SUFFICIENT perspective for historical treat
ment, while the latter il too vast for
single article. We shall aim to interpret
some Of the literary productions OF the
new era as a reflection of the remarkable
transformation through which Japan's
social life is just passing; for In this
sense the young literature. otherwise OF
too local interest, would seem to pos
sess an important and even universal
significance. From this point of view.
however, 1t would be impossible to do
Justice to the relative importance to one
another of the Individual authors and
works. and we could not even exhaust
the list Of those whose merit is greatest.
We are even obliged to exclude a few
great works by Roban and Shoyo. for
they touch themes of universal human
modern japan. Our choice will be con-
fessedly partial. but will include little
that Is not In some manner or other ex-
pressive Of the society OF the present
day.
It might be thought necessary to de-
fine In simple words the meaning Of the
terms literature and society as here used.
Literature" Is intended to comprise all
or any artistic. as opposed to scientific.
writing on man and nature. but, I'm this
al L..
novels as seem to reflect the social life Of
new Japan. Society" does not lend
itself to a precise definition. the COM
mon sense would scarcely include the
physical surroundings. the institutions
and the domestic and foreign political
relations of a nation. but would regard
1t rather as aggregate effects Of all these
things and of the nations collective life
upon the daily habit. material and moral.
OF the individual It is unnecessary for
scholastic Improvements upon this crude
defnition-it sufficiently indicates the
complex and largely inexplicable nature
Of the question. Hence 1t is that Htera-
ture deiineates. rather than analyses or
explains, society. Literature Is. there
fore, a mirror-often a dim and I'M
even mirror-of society. and an attempt,
like the present. to interpret the object
through the image. must needs be seri-
ously defective.
Power Of Harunoya.
No impartial account OF the literature
of new Japan should fail to accord Tsu-
bouchi Yuzo (pseudonyms, Shoyo and
Haru-no-ya) a distinguished place in its
history. No other writer has been so
reflective and so modest, and yet so un-
ceasingly and Brilliant growing, and so
largely a leader Of the literary tendencies
or the nation. as this sage poet Of Okubo.
For q quarter OF q century he has been
engaged in training the youth at Waseda
University, whence thousands saturated
with the natural but profound influence
OF the conscientious master have spread
over the land. and hundreds have estab-
nshed themselves in the literary world.
We much regret that our present pur-
pose forbids us to follow. beyond its very
FIRST stage. the marvellous literary career
Of DR.. Tsubouchi, first as q novelist, then
as an essaytst. philosopher, educator and
dramatist: Tor. SO far as his own literary
works are concerned. they are too uni
versal In import to be expressive merely
Of the Japanese society Of today. His
first appearance in 1855 as a novelist,
however, should serve as the starting
point Of our account The To-sei-sho-sei
katagi (The Modern Suddenly came as a
bolt In q clear sky, caused CONSERVATION
In the followers Of the old literary forms
and powerfully turned the trend of
thought Of the novelists In a new direc-
ton. Hitherto most writer's had been
won't to assign different abstract qualities
to different characters In the story. and
arrange their acts and careers In such a
way as to point toward some wholesome
moral exhOrtattpn. Individual charac-
tiers were often overshadowed either by
inexorsble fate and unforeseen accidents
or by the commanding power OF the fam
fly or public institutions. The To-sei
sho-sei katagi. except in the earlier por-
ton Of its story, completely ignored the
WORKOUT conventions Of fiction-making.
A novel without q hero as 1t was. 1t re-
students with their different character
istics in full activity in. the heart of
bustling Toxic. The students salute and
the jinrikisha mans shout are heard on
every hand: the society is new, crude
and bare; the virtues of the past feudal
ages are not much in evidence, while the
old vices remain and have gained force in
the new age Of egoistic hedonism. In this
vigorous but unembellished society each
student Is left amid temptations. and
character and environment.
It IL a decidedly transitional society
that the rising novelist depicted in 1885
and that a host of others have since es-
sayed to portray. It is q society In which
new order Of thipGs. and old intellectual
and moral habit Obtains amid new laws
and institutions. 1t is a society, what is
more, In which the old social sanction
has passed away, but the old social mind
still subsists to a large extent. while
new social sanction and new social morals
have hardly been developed. For al
though new Japan has. during the forty
years Of her existence. succeeded in re-
building her legal, political and educa-
tional organs upon new foundations. and
pushing her economic life into the new
est stage Of the worlds material progress.
her art, religion and social life. which
from their very nature cannot be artih-
cially changed by laws or by individual
self-interest, are still far from seeing the
dawn OF q new era. For many years to
come the old and the new elements In
each Of these fields must exist in inhar-
rnonious juxtaposition, and. quite nat
urally, this condition is nowhere more
evident and more intimately felt than in
the daily social life Of the people. 1t
would, Of course. be beyond our power
to unravel this confused state of society.
All we may hope to accomplish would be
to make an attempt to point out some OF
the more striking aspects OF social life
and show them reflected In few notable
literary productions.
Feudalism Long Gone.
It is well known that Japan's feudal-
ism was abolished by law not more than
forty years ago. and yet in this short
space Of time it has been replaced by the
new order of things perhaps more COM
81 IN,