Modern Japanese literature is closely related to the visual arts. This fact is especially apparent in the literary theory of the Meiji poet and essayist Masaoka Shiki (1867 -1902). Shiki’s theory of shasei (“drawing from life”)， an ideal which has exercised immense influence on modern Japanese literature, first emerged from his indirect encounter with the art theory of Italian painter Antonio Fontanesi (1818 - 1882). Arriving in Japan in 1876, Fontanesi taught painting and art theory for two years at Tokyo’s Kōbu Bijutsu Gakkō. Among his students were Koyama Shōtarō (1857? 1916) and Asai Chū (1854 - 1907), two painters who in turn later were to become the teachers of Nakamura Fusetsu (1866- 1943), Shiki’s friend and chief source of information about Western art theory. Through his exchanges with Fusetsu, Shiki gained an entirely new insight into literature, and a new literary vocabulary as well.

　This essay makes a detailed study of the influence which Fontanesi and Western art theory had on Shiki, and how this influence is reflected in Shiki’s various crtical and literary wrtings. In particular I focus on the following six points:(1) Fontanesi’s reception in Meiji Japan, (2) Fontanesi’s expansion of the field of subjects considered appropriate for artistic representation to encompass all phenomena, however apparently trivial or mundane, (3) Fontanesi’s teachings regarding compositional principles, especially the deliberate selection of elements for representation..., (4) Making the central theme of the work stand out..., (5) Arranging individual elements into an aesthetically satisfying whole, (6) The influence of Fontanesi’s ideas as reflected in Shiki’s own creative work.

　Shiki was able to apply the theory and vocabulary of the visual arts to his study of literature because he recognized the points in common to both. This insight in effect allowed him to forge a new theory of literature from the art theory which Fontanesi had taught, skillfully adapting the principles of the latter, primarily visual genre, to the very different problems of language and literature. Thus, Shiki’s literary theory, which exerted considerable influence on later novelists as well as on tanka and haiku poets, in turn was strongly influenced by Western art theory. The emphasis that Shiki places on reinforcing literary “practice” with a well-constructed aesthetic theory —— borrowing widely across cultures and genres —— serves as evidence of his strong desire to recast native Japanese literary genres into forms viable for the modern world.

　Although the influence of Western art theory on Shiki has been recognized among scholars for several decades, the exact process by which Shiki came to know of and assimilate Fontanesi’s ideas has remained unexplored. This paper seeks to redress this oversight, providing a glimpse into the way Western aesthetic theory infiltrated Japanese literature and art during the Meiji period.

　1930/31 besuchte die japanische Theatertruppe unter der Leitung von Tsutsui Tokujiro zweimal Berlin und begeisterte die Berliner mit Aufführungen im Stil des Kabuki-Theaters. Bertolt Brecht (1898- 1956) sah das Gastspiel persönlich und hat mit seiner Inszenierung von “Mann ist Mann” (1931) darauf reagiert.

　Diese Truppe, die in Europa das Kabuki vorstellte, war aber keine echte Kabuki-Schauspielergesellschaft, sondern spielte meist das Schwertkampftheater ‘Kengeki’ und galt dazu nur als zweitklassig. Trotzdem machte die traditionell stilisierte Darstellungsweise auf die Theaterbesucher einen erstaunlich großen Eindruck, eine Tatsache, deren Bestätigung ich in den damaligen Zeitungsrezensionen habe finden können.

　Anhand des Essays “über die japanische schauspieltechnik” und der Bühnenphotos von “Mann ist Mann” (1931) kann man Brechts eigenartige Reaktion auf das japanische Theater erkennen, besonders hinsichtlich epischer und grotesker Züge in der Darstellungsweise, worauf schon Antony Tatlow in seinem Buch “The Mask of Evil” hinweist. Aber in Brechts Drama gab es doch bereits gewisse grundsätzliche Ähnlichkeiten mit dem Kabuki-Theater, wie sie nicht nur im Bühnentext von 1931, sondern auch schon in dem Erstdruck von 1926 gefunden werden können, z.B. die Montage-Technik in der Art Eisensteins. Bei Brecht und im Kabuki-Theater wird die Veränderung der Person durch die Zusammensetzung von getrennten Kunstelementen symbolisch dargestellt, obwohl beide Richtungen ganz verschiedene Zwecke verfolgen.

　Brecht kann also im japanischen Gastspiel einige Elemente des von ihm schon ansatzweise entwickelten epischen Theaters entdeckt und sich damit in seinem Versuch bestärkt gefühlt haben. Vielleicht deshalb versuchte er gewisse Anregungen aus dem japanischen Schauspiel in sein eigenes Theater einzuführen.

　As Japan grew as a modern nation state，“Japanese” identity was formed with the imagery of “gaijin”，or foreigners as “the others”. In this paper I analyze Ozaki Koyo’s Kyo-Kokuji (1893), which is about black slaves’ rebellion in Jamaica. It is translated from an Irish novelist Maria Edgeworth’s “The Grateful Negro” (1802). Koyo reduced it to a third of its original length, though he left the plot unchanged. Edgeworth intended to criticize slavery, but Koyo changed it to a story which praised “gikyo”，or the chivalrous spirit, which culminated in death.

　Although Japan did not adopt slavery, strongly connected with modem western colonialism, it later became a ruler of other Asian countries. How did Japan understand western colonialism? Kyo-Kokuji was written and published just before the Sino-Japanese War, when Japan was imbued with nationalism. Many works in the “Shonen-Bungaku” series, including Kyo-Kokuji, recommend the “gikyo” spirit, and rejected foreigners in Japan. But in Kyo-Kokuji, the black people speak like the Japanese do, and are portrayed as similar to the Japanese.

　Kyo-Kokuji reinforced the illusion of a universal “Japanese” identity, erasing the “otherness” of foreigners, although it mostly fulfilled the Japanese curiosity about different cultures. Here, Koyo did not adapt the western gaze itself, but used black people as receptacles of the Japanese “gikyo” spirit.

　Though not an artist of the Western style of painting, Feng Zikai played an important role in the reception of Western art in China from the 1920s onwards. Having first studied Western art under Li Shutong, the first person to introduce correct training methods for Western art into China, Feng went to Japan in 1921 to further his study in this field. Though on his return home to China, he did not in the end become a Western style artist, he published many works on the topic. In this paper, I focus on his theory of the superiority of Chinese art.

　Feng’s influential essay, “The Victory of Chinese Art in the Modern Era” was published as the opening piece in the January edition of Dongfangzazhi (1930). He asserts here the superiority of Chinese art both formally and theoretically. His views, however, were not originally of his own making but were borrowed from Japan. Since the end of the Meiji period the study of Eastern art had flourished in Japan and scholars, in conscious resistance to the West, had proclaimed the superiority of Eastern art over its Western counterpart. Feng’s thesis took such arguments as its basis.

　Confronted with the West Japan and China were on common ground, and both were in need of values derived from within their own culture which could compete with the West. Japan, through reexamination of its adoption of Western art, discovered values superior to the West in the history of Chinese art. Starting with Okakura Kakuzo, Japanese scholars demonstrated the superiority of Qiyun-shengdong 気韻生動 to the Einfühlung theory. Feng readily adopted the Japanese view; since China as the cultural center of the region was in even greater need of values with which to compete with the West and Japan.

　The idea that Chinese art was superior to the West’s spread, and many Western style painters in China returned to traditional Chinese painting, literati painters like Shih Tao 石濤 and Bada-shanren 八大 山人 were revaluated. Such a return, of course, enriched Chinese painting of the Minguo period, but what is important here is that the assertion of the superiority of Chinese art became a turning point in the reception of Western art in China.

　Meine Abhandlung behandelt das Problem der Übersetzung: Inwieweit kann der Stil des Originals von Natsume Sōseki, der auf der sehr klaren gesprochenen Sprache von Tokio beruht, ins Deutsche übertragen werden? Ich benutze als Text Der Tor aus Tokio, übersetzt von Jürgen Berndt und Shinohara Seiei, Theseus-Verlag 1990.

　Ich stelle Betrachtungen über Ausdrücke an, die den deutschen Satz verletzen, wenn wörtlich übersetzt wird. Z.B. Erklärungen typisch japanischer Landschaften und Ortsnamen, Dialekte und Wortspiele, sowie faule Witze, die beim japanischen Leser gut angekommen sind, bedeutungsvolle Kosename von Personen, die Stimme usw. Außerdem untersuche ich, wie die Kultur hinter dem Text übersetzt und vorgestellt wird und analysiere dazu auch die Anmerkungen und das Nachwort.

　Im Werk von Natsume Sōseki wird das Verhalten der Hauptfigur, eines Lehrers an der Mittelschule in Matsuyama beschrieben, der aus Tokio in die Provinzstadt gekommen ist. Wenn man durchdenkt, warum er innerhalb eines Monates nach Tokio zurückkehrt, merkt man, daß es sich um den Kulturkonflikt zwischen Tokio und Matsuyama, zwischen Erwachsensein und Jugend handelt. Diese Spannung kommt im Unterschied der Sprechweisen der Hauptfigur und der Personen um ihn herum zum Ausdruck. Ich betrachte dies aus dem Gesichtspunkt der Übersetzungskritik makroskopisch und untersuche dabei das Problem des Kulturkonflikts (zwischen Deutschland und Japan). Dabei frage ich auch, inwieweit die Übersetzer als Außenstehende eine Sprache in eine andere Sprache übersetzen können.

　Lafcadio Hearn visited Nagasaki from July 20 to 22 in 1893, about a year and a half after his move from Matsue to Kumamoto. The aim of this trip, however, has not yet been made clear. It has often been considered a kind of sight-seeing trip with the possible intention of purchasing something Western, as suggested in a letter to Chamberlain dated July 14,1893. Nagasaki reminded Hearn of one of his favorite writers, Pierre Loti. But there is no clear mention of Loti in the letter to Chamberlain dated July 22, which is, as it were, a report on this trip. The close connection between this trip and Loti becomes clear, however, if we examine both Loti’s Madame Chrysanthemum and the letters exchanged between Hearn and Chamberlain before and after the trip.

　Especially in 1893, the two continued to exchange letters concerning Loti until Hearn left for Nagasaki. Just before the trip, for example, Hearn sent Chamberlain the photograph he had received from Loti himself in 1885. Thus, Loti must have been in Hearn’s consciousness while finalizing his plans for the trip. Also, there were many descriptions in Madame Chrysanthemum which captivated him. A close investigation of the letter dated July 22, connected with such descriptions in Loti’s book, reveals the link between Loti and Hearn’s trip to Nagasaki.