I have contemplated where Homei Iwano, who has excited comparatively less comment, should be placed among those writers in the Meiji era who dealt with literature, wrestling with the problem of 'Individual and Nation' I believe his problem of 'Individual and Nation' is, seen from the present point of sight, one of the urgent and indispensable matters the present literature should take seriously in hand. To be concrete, it is, I think, how we should estimate the merits and demerits that grow out of his 'Individualistic Nationalism' that really counts. This matter has not fully discussed before, though it contains some serious problems, I wonder what brought about that gigantic energy spent on the investigation of the relation between Homei himself, an unparalleled intense individual, and a nation, which is slippery and vague. The first thing to do is to trace the course. So I shall begin with inquiring inclusively into the correlation between Homeis circumstances hased on the samurai spirit and, for example, 'San Suijin Keirin Mondo' by Chomin Nakae, and moreover, the actualization of old shintoism through Nobuhiro Soto which was embodied on the opportunity of World. War I. It is desirable to survey the process from 'Mystical Animalism' his maiden critical essay, to 'Japanism'. Homei then, regarded 'Nation' not as an eternal, fixed conception but as something to be realized in developing individuals. When you try to analyze the realities of an authori-tarian system in its face, you can't help feeling that the power is nothing but a sole individual substance that is alienated and suffer pain, whatever upsurge of sentiment there may be. He was no exception to this rule. It is because such a 'natual 'idea as springs up as 'Old Shintoism' is understood, with him in those days, to be the approximate essence existing within a 'nation'. It implies that a selfish, visionary expansion of individual substance is working as an infinite motive. So, it must be interesting as a theme for the present literature to compare critically 'On a Festival' in 'On General vision' by Ryumei Yashimoto, with 'Old Shintoism' by Homei. It is a question concerned with the variation of the meaning that man's death and birth are regarded in the same light as a presentation of general vision. On the other hand, the natural idea derived from a selfish, visionary expansion of individual substance responded, for example, to the theory of democracy by Sakuzo Yoshino and others, when it touches his own literary principle. These problems are necessarily connected with individual excistence and national independence and thought to influence the estimation of Homei's 'Individualistic Nationalism'.

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