Towards the end of the first decade of the twentieth century, Tayama Katai wrote modern poetry themed on young girls, to be carried each month on the first page of the magazine, Shojo sekai, a publication for young girls, from September 9, 1909 to February1, 1910. This paper examines all forty-two poems that appeared in Shojo sekai in order to understand why Katai employed the Romantic rhetoric that he did, and why it was employed in a young girls' magazine. This is discussed in the context of the coexistence of both Romantic and Naturalistic approaches in Katai's other writings during the same period. The intent is to help explicate the process by which "girls' sexuality" was constructed (to use a term that came into critical favor in the last two decades). This includes an examination of the term "Romanticism" itself as used by Katai to typify the outlook of young girls.
