Ōgai Mori published his Kamen (Masks) in April,1909. This drama was regarded as an epochmaking work of Ōgai who had long remained out of the literary world because it marked his new start as a writer.
The drama seems to have been written based upon a theme, which is much the same as what is called “the philosophy of masks” in Nietzsche’s Jenseits von Gut und Böse. And also it is possible to say that the drama is subject, in its idea as well as in form, to the influence of Die letzten Masken and Der einsame Weg by Arthur Schnitzler. These works of Schnitzler were often regarded as “pessimistic” or “nihilistic.” But Ōgai did not always give such an interpretation to Schnitzler’s works. He interpreted them from the viewpoint of “Entsagung” (mikiri).
Then, it has often been said that Ōgai’s literary works also have a pessimistic and nihilistic tendency. Judging from this point of view, Ōgai’s works have something common to Schnitzler’s. Perhaps, this view arises from the interpretation of “Entsagung”,which has been thought to be included in Ōgai’s view of life and the world. But the “Entsagung” comes from an idealistic attitude,but not from a “pessimistic” or “nihilistic” one.
Hence, the problem of “Resignation” (teinen) , the central theme of the study of Ōgai’s works, should be understood with special reference to such “Entsagung” as an idealistic attitude.
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