This paper studies the personality of Osayo, heroine of Ōgai' s “Yasui Fujin” (The Wife of Yasui, 1914) in terms of Confucianist teachings, as well as of Rainer Maria Rilke's philosophical idea‘ein Verhältnis außer aller Konvention (a relationship without the bounds of convention)’that he originally expressed in his play “Das tägliche Leben” (1902; translated as Everyday Life in Nine Plays, 1979).
Mori Ōgai (1862 – 1922) wrote “Yasui Fujin”, a historical short story, based on the biography “Yasui Sokken Sensei” (1913) by Wakayama Kozo. To analyze how Ōgai portrayed Osayo in his work has been an intriguing topic for research. Osayo's personality has been interpreted mainly from the viewpoint of Rilke's belief ‘ein Verhältnis außer aller Konvention': a woman faithfully devoted to her husband.
Yasui Sayo (1812-1862), who in the work is called affectionately Osayo-san, lived during the late feudal Tokugawa period as the wife of a leading Confucian scholar Yasui Sokken (1799 – 1876) to whom Sayo dedicated herself. With this fact in view, Osayo's personality could be examined in terms of Confucianism, especially of the Analects of Confucius, which has not been done in any previous study.
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