Importing the Canon:

The Harvard Classics and the Enpon Zenshū

Abstract

　In this paper I propose to examine the myth that the Harvard Classics (1909-1910) directly influenced the development of the enpon zenshū (oneyen books, a collection of inexpensive volumes published in the late 1920s). I intend to do so through investigating the similarity between the Harvard Classics and two enpon, Kaizō-sha’s Gendai nihon bungaku zenshū (1926) and Shinchō-sha's Sekai bungaku zenshū (1927). In his memoir, the editor and critic Ki Kimura (1894-1979) revealed “the origin of the enpon zenshū.” Having purchased a set of the second edition of the Harvard Classics, Kimura approached Sanehiko Yamamoto (1885-1952), the president of the Japanese publishing house, Kaizō-sha, and suggested the possibility of publishing a similar collection in Japan. Yamamoto immediately hit upon the idea of the enpon as a multi-volume anthology of Japanese contemporary literature, which went on to attract many readers and to generate incredible sales. Kimura also suggested the idea of the huge anthology to an editor at Shinchō-sha. In addition, Kimura clearly asserted that Gendai nihon bungaku zenshū 's formal structure and content were designed after the model of the Harvard Classics. While the avid editor Kimura wished to dignify and canonize his own collections by drawing on the prestige of the Harvard brand, a close comparison of these monumental anthologies suggests that the Harvard Classics in fact had little influence on the enpon zenshū. Perhaps more interesting, however, are the similar cultural and pedagogical shifts (e.g., the general public’s aspiration for higher education) in the U.S. and Japan that led to both anthology booms.