In the early stage of his literary life, Ogai Mori, who did not accept Ibsen’s dramas for their naturalistic tinge, called the Norwegian ‘that old-fashioned writer’.
But in 1903 when he translated Brand, he showed interest in a hero who decided to concentrate on fulfilling his duties to society, expressed in ‘All or Nothing’. This idea from Brand influenced his own Nichiren-shonin Tsujizeppo (A Sermon at Roadside by Saint Nichiren). And in 1909 Ogai, first reading the works of Rilke, came to call Ibsen ‘a modern writer’, understanding Brand from the viewpoint of ‘Autonomie’.
Ogai, in his closing stage, disagreed again with the dramatist for the destructive in his plays, though he translated A Doll's House and Ghosts. This notion about Ibsen seemed to have something to do with Ogai’s respect for and agreement with Goethe’s thought.
Nevertheless Ogai emphasized the excellent technique of Ibsen’s dramas and stressed that they should not be evaluated from the naturalistic standpoint.
