抄録
Yasuda Yojuro (1910–1981) was a Japanese thinker from the Showa period. He is
famous for his literary criticism, and he also wrote a lot of art criticism, for example,
Taimamandara and Nihon no bijutushi. In his literary criticism, Yasuda mostly wrote
about classic Japanese literature, but in his art criticism, he wrote about not only
Japanese classics but also contemporary Western art. This article aims to reconsider
Yasuda’s ideas through an examination of his art criticism that previous research has
hardly considered.
First, I reveal Yasuda’s view of art through an examination of his famous literary
criticism Taikanshijin no Goitininsya and his art criticism Saigyo to Dufy. Then, I
compare Yasuda’s art criticism in 1942 and Kindai no chokoku, which was a round-
table discussion in 1942 that included many famous literary scholars in Japan. Finally,
I conclude that Yasuda’s ideas were not the most ultranationalistic of the time that
previous research has regarded his ideas as, but more international than that of his
contemporary literary scholars.
