Anarchy and Anarchism in Modern Japanese Fiction, 1900-1930

238 Pages·2004·0.63 MB·English

CHAOS FROM ORDER: ANARCHY AND ANARCHISM IN MODERN
JAPANESE FICTION, 1900-1930
DISSERTATION
Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for
the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate
School of The Ohio State University
By
Stephen Filler, M.A.
*****
The Ohio State University
2004
Dissertation Committee:
Approved by
Professor Richard Torrance, Adviser
Professor William Tyler ________________________
Adviser
Professor Shelley Quinn Department of East Asian
Languages and Literatures
ABSTRACT
Anarchism was an important social and political movement in prewar
Japan, promoted by Kôtoku Shûsui in the first decade of the 20th century and
developed into a rich political and artistic philosophy by Ôsugi Sakae in the
1910s. Japanese anarchists saw industrial capitalism as the cause of intolerable
conditions suffered by the working class, and sought the destruction of the
capitalist system and of all external government, championing individualistic
rebellion as the vehicle of revolution. Literary anarchism flourished during this
same period in the form of essays, fiction, and poetry written by self-styled
anarchists to promote the political philosophy of anarchism and to attempt to
capture contemporary realities and promote revolutionary action.
This dissertation explores selected works of fiction by anarchists in order
to trace the development of an anarchistic style. Chapter One identifies the main
elements of literary anarchism as consisting of: journalistic-style realistic
reporting on the lives of the poor; the reification of concepts like “nature” and
“life” in a vitalistic philosophy celebrating the growth and evolution of
individuals and society; the championing of violent, nihilistic rebellion; and
radical individualism. Journalistic realism is shown to be derived from
newspaper exposés of the living conditions of the underclass which were written
from the 1880s onward, and the artistic portrayal of “vitalism” is shown to be
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influenced by early Japanese naturalistic fiction. The fiction of Kunikida Doppo
applied the journalistic style to his portrayals of the lives of the poor, while the
fiction of Tayama Katai and Shimazaki Tôson extensively developed the themes
of vitalism and nihilism.
Chapter Two discusses the creation of a truly anarchist literature through
Ôsugi Sakae’s formulation of an anarchistic artistic philosophy, which was put
into practice by his colleagues such as Miyajima Sukeo. Miyajima and others
welded the elements of journalism and Japanese naturalism to a firmly anarchist
political stance, creating a dramatic new form of revolutionary literature.
Chapter Three discusses the development as well as the decline of
anarchist literature through the late 1920s. Two important “proletarian” writers
with heavily anarchist sympathies, Hirabayashi Taiko and Yamakawa Ryô,
utilized realistic prose and anarchistic themes to deal with the conflicts which
attended their lives as members of the anarchist and socialist movements.
Hirabayashi, in particular, criticized the misogyny endemic to the allegedly
egalitarian anarchist movement, while Yamakawa sought to retain individualism
in the face of a Marxist dogmatism which demanded that the individual and art
be subordinated to the purposes of the movement. Chapter Three also discusses
the flourishing of anarchist avant-garde poetry by such writers as Hagiwara
Kyôjirô and Ono Tôzaburô. Such poetry gave anarchist radicalism its most
dramatic and original expression, but also revealed the fragmentation and
decline of anarchism as a political movement due to internal conflicts and
external persecution by the government.
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Dedicated to my mother, Sheila Filler
And to the memory of my father, Louis Filler
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I wish to thank my adviser, Richard Torrance, who initially suggested this
topic and has provided support, guidance, and advice all along.
I thank William Tyler for helping me to learn to handle Japanese texts and
for guiding my exploration of the relationship between politics and literature. I
also thank Shelley Quinn for her insights on the performative nature of literature.
Much of the research for this dissertation was conducted under grants
from the Japan Foundation for my research at Ryûkoku University, Kyoto, from
June to September 2001, and from the Monbukagakushô for my research at
Osaka University, from October 2001 to April 2003. I thank all the individuals
involved in making this research possible.
I thank Mari Noda, Galal Walker, Charles Quinn, James Unger, and
Mineharu Nakayama for their guidance. My appreciation goes to Philip Brown
for his comments on the manuscript. I am grateful for the friendship of my fellow
graduate students, especially Michael Tangeman. I also thank Scott Langton,
Minae Savas, and Jeffrey Angles. I thank Debbie Knicely for all her assistance and
advice over the years.
I thank Izuhara Toshitaka at Osaka University for his advice on Japanese
naturalism and his valuable seminars. I thank Akihiko Kitano for introducing me
to essential materials, and Tsuneo Kitagawa for his assistance in finding a
university sponsor. I thank Horikiri Toshitaka, Ôwada Shigeru, Sofue Shôji,
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Matsuzawa Shinsuke, Shimura Masashi, and everyone at the Research Center for
Early Japanese Socialism. I thank Araki Den and Suzuki Sadami for advice and
materials. I thank Saitô Masao for his advice and assistance. I thank Murata
Michiyo, Araki Kôji, Takayama Hiroko, Matsudaira Yôko, Watanabe Aiko and
family, the Kamitanis, Morita Seiichi, Muranaka Hirohiko, Nonkichi, Nakai Tarô,
Tanaka Hikaru, Arimatsu Yukiharu, the Board of Education at Ando-chô (Nara
Prefecture), Yamada Kazuko, Neil Garscadden, Lee Cohen, and Heather Jim. I
thank Suzanne Gay, Ann Sherif, Amy Redden, and my other colleagues at
Oberlin College. I thank Amy Christiansen for her mentorship and professional
advice.
All-around thanks and love to my mother, Abby, Nell, Jonathan, Jude, and
Jem.
Finally, I thank Helena for her love and support for the duration of this
project.
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VITA
1966……………………………Born – Holyoke, Massachusetts
1997………………………………………M.A. Japanese Literature,
The Ohio State University
2001………………………………………Dissertation Research Fellow,
The Japan Foundation,
Ryûkoku University, Kyoto
2001-2003………………………………...Research Fellow,
Monbukagakusho,
Osaka University
2003-2004………………………………...Visiting Instructor of Japanese,
Oberlin College
FIELDS OF STUDY
Major Field: East Asian Languages and Literatures
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
Abstract…………………………………….…………………………………….ii
Acknowledgements……………………………..………………………………v
Vita…………………………………………...…...………………..…………....vii
Introduction: Political anarchism and literary anarchism…………...……...1
Chapters:
1. The emergence of anarchist tendencies in socialist and naturalist fiction
(1902-1911)……………………………………….…………..…………….25
2. The flowering of political anarchism and anarchist theory (1911-
1923)………………………………………………………………………...80
3. Proletarian literature, nihilism, and avant-garde poetry: the flourishing
and fragmentation of anarchist literature………………………………….144
Conclusion…………………………………………………………….………214
Bibliography………………………………………………………….……….223
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INTRODUCTION
POLITICAL ANARCHISM AND LITERARY ANARCHISM
Literary anarchism
This study aims to identify and describe the elements of literary
anarchism in modern Japanese literature through a discussion of representative
literary works of prose. The time period covered is from the turn of the 20th
century to approximately 1930, a period of time which saw the rise of anarchism
in Japan and its development into a variety of anarchist and anarchist-related
movements. Anarchist movements have continued in Japan to the present day,
but the governmental suppression of radical political movements in the mid-
1930s put an effective end to prewar anarchism.
Anarchism came to Japan in the early 20th century as a radical political
philosophy which, like communism, sought to overthrow the existing capitalist
system, which was seen as the cause of intolerable suffering by the working
masses. Rendered in Japanese as museifu shugi or anakizumu, anarchism, in the
words of historian Peter Marshall, “rejects all forms of external government and
the State and believes that society and individuals would function well without
them.”1

1 Peter Marshall, Demanding the Impossible: A History of Anarchism (London:
HarperCollins, 1993) xiii.
1
Literary anarchism is described in standard literary sources like the Nihon
Kindai bungaku daijiten2 as consisting of definable groups, literary journals,
schools, and manifestos, as well as a cluster of themes and imagery which reflect
the values and agendas of self-described “anarchists.” More narrowly, “anarchist
literature” (anakizumu bungaku) refers to the texts produced by these anarchists.
Since anarchism was a significant political and social force in Japan, the focus of
this study is to clarify the ideas, literary works and writers that have been
identified as anarchistic and to demonstrate the influence that these writers had
on the contemporary and present day social and political milieux in Japan.
Terminology
A discussion of literary anarchism requires the use of a number of terms
relating to anarchism and socialism which often overlap with each other and
which elude categorical definition. Most of these terms were directly derived
from European words, usually in the form of Sino-Japanese compound
“translations” (e.g., shakai shugi, “socialism”). In some cases, phonetic
borrowings were used (e.g., borusheviki, “Bolshevik”). In this study I will use
these terms primarily to make distinctions relevant to a discussion of literature.
To this end, I will not attempt rigorous political-philosophical definitions, but
will instead proceed from the usages given by Japanese literary writers
themselves or by historians of Japanese anarchist literature.

2 Nihon kindai bungaku daijiten, vol. 4 (Tokyo: Kôdansha, 1977) 6-7.
2