2015 Volume 64 Issue 6 Pages 39-49
Toska is a Russian word for “sadness” or “melancholy,” but it has been used with various shades of meaning in Russian literature since the early nineteenth century. The word became to be known in Japan through “Fusagi-no-mushi,” Shimei Futabatei's translation of Maxim Gorky's “Toska” in 1906. Then it had also been turned into an important literary term and used in many works of the prewar period. This paper will historically examine the concept and signification of the Russian word in the Japanese literature of the early twentieth century.