Between Fiction and Nonfiction:

Haruo Satō's Okinu and Her Brothers and Feng Menglong's The Oil-Peddler Wins the Queen of Flowers

Abstract

Haruo Satō's short novel, Okinu and Her Brothers, was initially published in Chūō Kōron's November issue (1918). Haruo Satō claimed that Okinu and Her Brothers was based entirely on fact; however, when compared to the brief biography of Kaneko Kinu, on whom Okin is modeled, the novel showed some contradictions to the biography, which implies the novel might not be purely nonfictional. And also, Satō's plot, characterization, and writing style in Okinu and Her Brothers were strikingly similar to a traditional Chinese story, The Oil-Peddler Wins the Queen of Flowers. Satō was famously known to be an enthusiast of traditional Chinese literature, so it is possible that he noticed the commonalities between Kaneko Kinu's experiences and the Chinese story, and combined them in Okinu and Her Brothers. Under the cover of its realistic folktale style, Okinu and Her Brothers is still based on Haruo Satō's art for art's sake thinking. Like Melancholy in the Country and The House of a Spanish Dog, Okinu and Her Brothers is also distinctly influenced by foreign literature. From this point of view, we can say that this novel is in fact a very typical creation among Haruo Satō's early works.