Soseki's Readers

Abstract

Among the many poems written in Chinese (kanshi) during the Meiji and Taisho eras, Soseki's have captured an unusually large readership. Yet aside from the sixteen included in his long essay “Omoidasukoto nado” (Things I Remember), one cannot say that Soseki's kanshi were widely read during his lifetime. In this paper, focusing on the fact that between Soseki's youth and the decade or so after his death, the readership of his kanshi gradually shifts along with the passage of time, I examine various groups of readers and their different ways of reading Soseki's kanshi. In addition, in order to further delve into the meaning of these various ways of reading kanshi depending on who is reading and when, I also examine the media through which the poems were published, including the reception of individual kanshi collections and editions of Soseki's complete works and, furthermore, trends in the criticism that appeared in magazines such as Daichōwa and Panthéon.