Abstract
As well known, modern Japanese literature has been much influenced by European literature. Exaggeratingly speaking, the history of modern Japan is the history of the import of Western civilization. In the literary world, and even in the academic world, one of the chief matters of concern was how to understand Europe, and how to accomplish the modernization of Japan. But one nation cannot accomplish anything but its own. So was the problem of Romanticism. The main theme of my essay is to survey the historical development of Japan's understanding of English Romanticism. Firstly, I trace the romantic thought current in the Meiji Era. As well known, the Meiji Restoration was, as it were, a Renaissance of Japan. Yet in this period any intrinsic understanding of the nineteenth century Romanticism was not yet seen. Because, in the early Meiji Era, in which Japan's national ideal supported the people, the Romantic isolation had not yet existed. It was in the third decade of the Meiji Era that the Romantic isolation was found in Japan's mental history. Wordsworth's and Byron's influences were seen in Toson Shimazaki, Tokoku Kitamura and Doppo Kunikida. Christian thinker Masahisa Uemura wrote an essay on Wordsworth, and Romanticism was gradually accepted in Japan. In the Taisho Era, authors of "Shirakaba School" established a Romantic idealism, and Whitman's humanism influenced on them. In this period, in the academic world, Takeshi Saito showed an idealistic or rather ethical understanding of Keats. Saito's Keats' View of Poetry was one of the best fruits in the literary study in Japan. But, on the other hand, the aesthetic acceptances of Romanticism were seen in Bin Ueda, Hojin Yano, etc. They understood not only the Romantic Poets but also the Symbolist Poets. These two different currents of understanding of Romanticism co-existed in modern Japan. In the Showa Era, left-wing literature arose in Japan. In this period, romanticism was often blamed for its evasion from the actual society. In the wartime, "Nihon-Roman-ha" (Japan Romantic School), which was influenced by German Romanticism, became gradually connected with. Militalist Japan's ideology, and English Romanticism was neglected. In the postwar era, in which democracy was being established in Japan, the humanistic individualism covered almost all the field of culture. The new estimation of English Romanticism was also connected with this thought current. Hideo Kano's view of Romanticism was much colored with humanism. He regarded the Romantic Movement as a humanistic movement in poetry, and tried a high estimation of Wordsworth. But in the postwar second decade, Japan's society came to be a very established one. Progressive thought current became considered as not almighty. Thus appeared the change of the estimation of Romanticism. The Romantic Poets began to be considered as men of isolation and agony. This was, as it were, an anti-humanistic and pessimistic view of Romanticism. The problem of imagination came to show new aspects. And the present task of the study is probably how to develop the new view of Romanticism.
