The Japanese Romantics’ interpretations of Okakura Tenshin’s philosophy during war time have often been seen as a distortion from a postwar point of view. However, their discovery of Tenshin is important because it stimulated the development of their distinct ideas.
This paper focuses on the view of Tenshin in the writings of Yasuda Yojūrō(a representative figure of the Japanese Romantics). There, we can see that Yasuda emphasizes the idea of continuation on three levels. This idea suggests the methodology represented in his famous 1936 essay “Japanese Bridges. ”
First, Yasuda emphasizes that “the world” Tenshin discovered as “Asia is one”, was an extension of the discovery of “the history” in which the exchanges of Asian cultures were very active. Second, Yasuda understands “the spirit of Showa” as directly connected with “the spirit of Meiji” embodied by Tenshin, discounting “the spirit of Taisho” between the two eras. Finally, Yasuda pays attention to the connection between the two worlds of Tenshin’s performance; “the heroes’ world” and “the poets’ world”. Yasuda then connects these worlds by relating them to the history of Oriental will, which blends the heroic accomplishment of Meiji restoration with the poetic heart of a lonely samurai.
In this way, we can conclude that the image of Tenshin, which Yasuda described as synthesizing every quality of Meiji’s genius, was shaped by three aspects of “bridging”, which brought different realms together.
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