It was around the time of the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923 that the comprehensive collection of works concerning the culture of the Meiji era began. As literary critics considered almost all the collected materials from the early Meiji era to have no literary value, most of them were not included in the Complete Works of modern Japanese literature that were beginning to be published at the time. It was not literary historians who dealt seriously with these “minor works,” but researchers in the field of philology, which was translated into Japanese as bunkengaku around the turn of the century. Although the philosopher Miki Kiyoshi believed that philology should be the basis of the study of literary history, these two disciplines were to go their separate ways.

During the Edo period, the word shōroku referred to the act of writing down sentences the reader wanted to commit to memory. Readers did this not only to remember literary expressions, but also to stimulate their own literary imaginations, using the concept of consciousness (ki) as a medium. In this paper, I use Yoshida Kou's Shōsetsu Bunpan (1889) as a starting point for an examination of the cultural background of shōroku, focusing on the relationship between memory and imagination before the Meiji era. I also show how pre-Meiji discourse on memory and imagination was deconstructed as psychology was introduced during the Meiji era.

In the early 1900s, many circular magazines were published for the purpose of giving people practice in writing. In this paper, focusing on the circular magazines Sakubunkai and Bungaku Kokyukai, both from the Kitakata region of Fukushima Prefecture, I clarify the actual situation of young people who practiced writing through these magazines, and their later activities in their local communities. These magazines attracted a wide variety of participants, who held discussions through their magazine writings. Because the magazines aspired to teach young people the correct meanings of words, members who were well-read in classical literature and possessed large personal libraries were most influential. This resulted in a sort of cultural gap among members. In addition, there were arguments between those who placed more emphasis on the practice of writing than on the perusal of correct meaning (kunko, or commentary). After the Russo-Japanese War, the trend toward “commentary” shifted from the quest for Japanese and Chinese classics to linguistic activities that would enhance regional cooperation, such as the recording of local history and the placing of inscribed literary monuments.

This paper examines the source of “Mami oyobi tengu” (Demons and Long-nosed Goblins), one section of Syozusii (or Syukutosii), a six-part collection of handwritten ghost stories Akutagawa Ryūnosuke made as a high school student. I begin by pointing out that in making this collection, Akutagawa may have received guidance from Yanagita Kunio's article “Yumeidan” (Tales of the Netherworld). In addition, I show that the “Mami oyobi tengu” section relies heavily on Hirata Atsutane's Kokon Yōmi Kō (On Ancient and Modern Demons), which contains many Buddhist tales. It is possible that this book of Atsutane's played an important role in Akutagawa's reception of other folktales rooted in the oral tradition, such as the Heian Era collection Konjaku monogatarishū (Tales of Times Now Past). Finally, as a source showing Akutagawa's acceptance of Hirata Atsutane's National Learning (Hirata Kokugaku) I introduce Hirata Atsutane no Tetsugaku (Hirata Atsutane's Philosophy), a volume from Akutagawa's personal library now in the collection of The Museum of Modern Japanese Literature.

In the manuscript for his late novel Shuppan (Setting Sail), Hori Tatsuo explored new literary possibilities by inserting poems from the Manyōshū into the prose text. With Hori's hand-written notes in volumes in his personal library as a starting point, I follow his creative process from Mizuno-ue (On the Water) through Shuppan. Furthermore, through a comparison of Shuppan and Rilke's The Lay of the Love and Death of Cornet Christopher Rilke, which it closely resembles in both setting and literary expression, I show that the use of ancient poetry in Shuppan supports the appearance of and resonance with collectivism, and suggest that this leads to a mechanism for salvation. I also point out that although Shuppan is the story of sakimori, ancient soldiers garrisoned on the coast of Kyushu, in the process of composing the novel Hori eliminated poems narrated by sakamori, thereby recreating the tale of sakimori using unrelated poems from the Manyōshū. I briefly examine Hori's methodology and its effectiveness.

The unreleased film The Effects of the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, produced by the now defunct Nippon Eigasha, was a rush print (unedited film) which was later processed with 4K technology, with written materials (such as testimonies from A-bomb survivors) added to certain images taken from the documentary footage. In this paper, I explore the possibilities for rethinking the atomic bombing of Nagasaki (Urakami) from new areas encompassed by this film. There was an effort to make documentary “material” from non-material, and there are two examples of this. The unreleased rush print mentioned above, which differed in intent from the visual record filmed by the American military, sought to bring visual images of the bombing filmed through the eyes of those who experienced it closer to written records from the side of the hibakusha (A-bomb survivors). I also discovered weaknesses in this project. In addition, I introduce the eyewitness accounts of the critic Katō Shūichi and others who observed the effects of the bombings immediately after the war.

Mrs. A's Letters (1946/1950), which Tanizaki Jun'ichirō intended to publish as his first postwar novel, was suppressed by GHQ censorship on the grounds that its description of wartime flight training made it “militaristic.” In fact, this novel was based on actual letters written to Tanizaki's wife Matsuko by a woman named Morimura Haruko during the war. While editing The Complete Works of Tanizaki Jun'ichiro (26 volumes, 2015-17, Chuo Koron Shinsha), I examined both the source materials and Tanizaki's manuscript. In this paper, by analyzing Tanizaki's process of composing the novel, and the effects of his rewriting Morimura's letters in a fictional form, I show how the situation under wartime censorship, when the letters were actually written, intersects with the postwar Occupation period, when Tanizaki wrote the novel. Finally, I aim to situate Mrs. A's Letters in the whole of Tanizaki's literary activities.

This paper focuses on Ogen, the protagonist of Shimazaki Toson's novel Aru Onna no Shogai (The Life of a Certain Woman, 1921), and how she spends the last years of her life as a psychiatric patient in “a hospital in Negishi,” which is modeled on Negishi Hospital. I begin by summarizing the writings of Morita Masatake, the director of this hospital, and argue that he translated the indigenous customs and beliefs of his patients into his accounts of various psychiatric cases. In doing so, his goal was to establish psychiatry as a science by providing rational explanations for the numerous threats Japanese society posed to religion early in the twentieth century. A similar logic can be found in the novel in the attitude of Ogen's relatives, who see her belief in otama-sama (protective spirits) as a sign of mental illness, and have her committed to a psychiatric hospital. I conclude that this issue of belief is treated critically in the text through the conflict between Ogen and her relatives as presented through the narrative.

In this paper, I analyze the discourse of detective fiction in the magazine Shin seinen (New Youth) before the famous mystery writer Edogawa Rampo made his debut in 1923. From the time of its founding in 1920, Shin seinen strongly advocated for what it called “High Class” detective fiction, which meant stories in which detectives solved their cases through logic. By 1922 “High Class” detective fiction had become the standard, yet this was also the year when stories that resisted this trend began to appear in magazines. One possible reason for this is the increase in avid fans of detective stories. Detective fiction, which was originally viewed as “low class,” began to be valued for its artistry, and the genre of “High Class” detective fiction was reorganized.

In this paper, I analyze the workings of economics in Yokomitsu Riichi's novel Shin-en. By focusing on Kaji, who loses his fortune when corporate stocks crash, and Kō, a graduate student in economics, I show that the expressions and motifs of used in the text are closely connected to “Ludwig Pohle's Theory of Economic Depression,” an academic paper by the economist Shuzuta Hitoshi, which Yokomitsu consulted while writing the novel. Furthermore, by bringing in Shizuta's paper, which analyzes the theoretical collapse of Pohle's economic thought, I suggest that Shin-en also works as a critique of other Japanese writers during the early 1930s, many of whom tried to produce literature by applying economic theory to the actual economic situation at the time.

This paper is an attempt to reconsider the contingency theory of the early Showa period through the perspective of Yokomitsu Riichi's essay “Theory of the Pure Novel” (1935). Traditionally, contingency has mainly been discussed from the epistemological point of view, as the accidental nature of human existence. On the other hand, in this paper, I focus on the methodology of how contingency is expressed in the novel as I trace the process through which Yokomitsu composed his “Theory of the Pure Novel.” I begin by establishing the fact that the epistemology of contingent human existence is related to the literature of Gide and Dostoyevsky. In addition, as a methodology, contingency implies the problem of symbols that become the focus of prose poetry, and presents new possibilities for considering the development of narrative in the early Showa period.

Uchida Hyakken is a generally known as a writer whose essay collection Haykkien zuihitsu (1933) gained him popularity and set off the zuihitsu boom of the early Showa period, but his prewar writing has not received the consideration it deserves. In fact, before the publication of Hyakkien zuihitsu, Hyakken's texts were associated with problems concerning a wide range of miscellaneous writings, not limited to the essay. Furthermore, even after the title Hyakkien became synonymous with zuihitsu, Hyakken's texts appear to disturb the classification of genres. Therefore, in this paper, while keeping the history of literary genres in view, I examine Hyakken's writing before and after the publication of Hyakkien zuihitsu. Hyakken's texts are related to changes in literature, and appear to disturb the boundaries between genres.

Although Nakajima Atsushi's story “Kitsune-tsuki” has long been read as a tragedy of human existence, not much attention has been paid to the depiction of animals in this work. In this paper, in order to critically reexamine the schema of “rational humans who use language vs. animals who lack rational thought,” I examine the depiction of possession by animal spirits in Nakajima's story by comparing it to actual contemporary discourse concerning this phenomenon. While much of the discourse on possession by animal spirits views the possessed as deranged or abnormal, there are also accounts that recognize the existence in animals of a spirit similar to that of human beings, and see possession as a more mysterious phenomenon. In Nakajima's story these two stances are mixed, which means that the act of speech is attributed to one specific subject and cannot be definitively determined to be “abnormal.” The depiction of animals in this story breaks down the logic that views human beings as uniquely in possession of rational language, thereby providing a starting point for a rereading of the literature of Nakajima Atsushi from the prospective of animals.

Jinmin bunko has long been viewed as a magazine that advocated wartime resistance. In this paper, I examine the concept of “realism,” a key word in this magazine, by tracing its provenance to 1928. By around 1928, a theory of realism centered on objectivity was established, but by around 1933, the magazine had made a reversal to subjectivity, along with many Japanese opinion leaders. Both Takeda Rintarō, the publisher of Jinmin bunko, and Yasuda Yojirō, who was later to become his adversary, published many articles advocating realism, but a conflict arose between them over the interpretation of minshū (the people). After following these changing trends, Jinmin bunko finally reached the position of minshuteki riaruizum (realism of the people). By tracing its history, I show that the position of Jinmin bunko cannot simply be classified by a dichotomy such as anti- or pro-war.

Images of aviation became very popular after World War I, often appearing in literary works as well as newspapers such as the Sunday Mainichi, but during the 1920s, the framework of air defense increasingly entered the picture. The concept of National Defense, which involved the Japanese people both physically and psychologically, created a new image of a space to be defended that was both separate from the earth yet strongly connected to it. This in turn gave rise to a network of feelings surrounding a National Land that existed above ground, promoting a collective consciousness among the people. The imaginative power of this new space can be seen in the works of Unno Jūza, and in Hosono Ungai's novel Fumetsu no Funbo (The Tomb of Immortality). Furthermore, the imagination of this new space of air defense, which is both visible and invisible, merges with the literary imagination. In literary texts that depict attacks by allied bombers, we can see images of earthbound bodies living through the destruction of the space of air defense.

I begin this paper by pointing out that Yang Yonghi's novel Chosendaigakko Monogatari (A Korea University Story) is viewed as having both autobiographical and testimonial elements, and that it deals with the issue of exclusionism concerning Korean schools in Japan. While the protagonist's knowledge of contemporary drama sets her apart from her classmates at Korea University, I show that in the scene where she breaks up with her Japanese boyfriend, a student at the neighboring Musashi Art University, Korea University, which had been a repressive place to her, is transformed into a place where her difference works effectively. Considering this transformation of the meaning of Korea University, it can be said that Yang's novel effectively exposes the mechanism of difference and approval. I further consider the critical importance of this novel with reference to an attempt of cross over the wall between Korea University and Musashi Art University that actually took place.