Modern Japanese Literature: From 1868 to the Present Day. An anthology

227 Pages·1994·71 MB·English

by  Donald Keene (ed.)

Two 1953 woodblock prints by Shiko Munokafa illusfrafing
poems by fhe contemporary writer lsamu Yoshii.
- # #
Modern
JAPANESE
LITERATURE
an anthology
compiled and edited f:Y
Donald Keene
from 1868 to present day
Including works by Akutagawa Ryu"
nosuke, author of Ras!wmon; Kawabata
Yasunari, of Snow Count~v and Tlze /zu
Dancer; Tanizaki J unichiro. of Some
Prefer Nettles; Mishima Yukio, who
wrote The Sound of TVares; and many
other literary greats of rnoclcrn .Ta pan
who have recently been commanding
increasing world-wide attention.
Japanese literature today is as active
and vital as any in the world. It is the
product of two great traditions: the
native, which goes back 1200 years or
more, and the W cstern, first introduced
to Japan less than one hundred years
ago. The combination of these two
very different traditions has given birth
to a literature which stands as a unique
product of the meeting of East and
West. Here in the stories, the plays,
(contmucd on inside back cover!
SOAS, University of London
I
II I II
The title and editor's name are presentc,l on t1w 111111111111111
c:ovcr in Japanese c:haractcrs. 18 0777519 4
MODERN
JAPANESE LITERATURE
,,OA••t•"
Modern
JAPANESE
LITERATURE
-an anthology
compiled and edited by
Donald Keene
CHARLES E. TUTTLE COMPANY
Rutland, Vermont &' Tokyo, Japan
, _,_.'\;$'
TO TED AND FANNY DE BARY
UNESCO COLLECTION OF REPRESENTATIVE WORKS
JAPANESE SERIES
This book has been accepted in the Japanese Series
of the Translations Collection
of the United Nations Educational, Scientific
and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
Published by the Charles E. Tuttle Company, Inc.
of Rutland, Vermont and Tokyo, Japan
with editorial offices at
Suido 1-chome, 2-6, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan
by special arrangement with the Grove Press, New York
Copyright© 1956 by Grove press, 795 Broadway, New York 3
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced in any fonn
without permission ill writing from the publishers
except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review
to be printed in a magazine or newspaper
First Tuttle edition published 1957
Seventeenth printing, 1985
Frontispiece by Nenjiro Inagaki
Reproduced by courtesy of Mikumo Wood-block Print Company, Kyoto
Material from Wheat and Soldiers reprinted by permission
of Rinehart & Company, Inc.
0293-000169,4615
PRINTED IN JAPAN
NOTE ON JAPANESE NAMES AND PRONUNCIATION
f apanese names are given in this book in the f apanese order: that is,
the surname precedes the personal name. Thus, in the name Natsume
Soseki, Natsume is the family name, Soseki the personal name.
The pronunciation of fapanese in transcription is very simple. The
consonants are pronounced as in English (with g always hard), the
vowels as in Italian. There are no silent letters. Thus, the name Mine
is pronounced "mee-nay." In general, long vowels have been indi
cated by macrons, but in some stories they have been omitted, as
likely to seem pedanticisms.
TRANSLATORS
PREFACE
Sam Houston Brock
It may come as a surprise to some readers that this volume, devoted
Robert H. Brower to the Japanese literature of the last eighty or so years, should be as
Harold G. Henderson long as my Anthology of f apanese Literature, which covers more
than a thousand years. The disproportion is largely to be explained
Howard Hibbett
in terms of the amount of literature which has poured from the
Glenn Hughes printing presses in recent times. AU the literature which survives
Baroness Shidzue Ishimoto from, say, the thirteenth century can hardly compare in bulk with
what any single year now produces. But it is not only by mere num
Yozan T. Iwasaki
bers that modern Japanese literature earns the right to be heard; its
Donald Keene quality is remarkably high, and compares with that written any
Ivan Morris where in the world.
The choice of material for inclusion has been difficult to make. It is
W. H. H. Norman
a commonplace of literary history. that many works highly esteemed
Shio Sakanishi
in their own day are subsequently doomed to oblivion. It also hap
G. W. Sargent pens, though less frequently, that a book which passed almost un
noticed in its own time is later seen to be a treasure of the literature.
Edward Seidensticker
These are the dangers which beset the compiler of anthologies of
Burton W atsun
modern works, and I cannot hope to have escaped them altogether.
Meredith Weatherby I shall be very glad if no glaring injustices have been made. I have
included very little solely for "historical" reasons. The novels of the
189o's have suffered in particular as a result of this policy. Although
they are still highly regarded by some Japanese critics, they seem
unbearably mawkish today, as I think most people will agree who
have read the existing translations of such works as Ozaki's Golden
Demon.1
It is the custom of Japanese critics to divide the modern period
into the reigns of the three Emperors: Meiji (1868-1912), Taisho
1 For an admirably detailed account of the literature written between 1868 and 1912,
the reader should consult /apanese Literature in the Meiji Era by Y. Okazaki, trans
lated by V. H. Viglielmo. (Tokyo, 1955.)
CONTENTS
(19l2-1926), and Showa (since 1926). These distinctions have some
meaning, as our use of "the twenties" or "the thirties" conjures up
an era, but it has not been felt necessary to observe the lines of these
demarcations in a book intended for Western readers.
Few of the translations given here have ever before appeared in
print. Most were made especially for this volume, and I wish to
express my thanks to all the translators. I am particularly indebted 9 Preface
to Edward Seidensticker for his willingness on repeated occasions to 13 Introduction
31 KAN AGAKI ROBUN : The Beefeater
drop whatever else he was doing and turn out for this book a re
markably fine translation. Carolyn Kizer has kindly looked over 34 HATI'ORI BUSHO: The Western Peep Show
my translations of modern poetry and offered many valuable pointers. 37 KAWATAKE MOKUAMI: The Thieves
Other help, at a time when I needed it badly, I have acknowledged, 53 Modern Poetry in Chinese
however inadequately, in the dedication. 55 TSUBOUCHI sHoYo: The Essence of the Novd
I am grateful to Kawabata Ya sunari, President of the Japanese 59 FUTABATEI SHIMEI: The Drifting Cloud
P. E.N. Club, for his kind intercession in obtaining permission to 70 HIGUCHI 1cH1Yo: Growing Up
use works by living authors. Acknowledgments are also due to: III KUNIKIDA DoPPo: Old Gen
122 Modern Haiku: I
International Publishers Co. for The Cannery Boat; the Japan Quar
124 NATSOME sosEKI: Botchan
terly for The Mole; Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., publishers of Some Pre
fer Nettles, for permission to use other works by Tanizaki; W. H. H. 134 SHIMAZAKI TOSON: The Broken Commandment
Norman and the Hokuseido Press for Hell Screen; Glenn Hughes 142 TAYAMA KATAI: One Soldier
for The Madman on the Roof (from Three Modern Japanese Plays); 159 NAGAI KAFU: The River Sumida
New Directions for "Villon's Wife"; and Rinehart & Co., Inc., for 201 Modern Poetry: I
Earth and Soldiers ( from Wheat and Soldiers). 207 Modern Waka
2II ISHIKAWA TAKUllOKU: The Romaji Diary
Kyoto-New York
232 MORI oGAI: The Wild Goose
242 IZUMI KYOKA: A Tale of Three Who Were Blind
254 NAKA KANSUKE: Sanctuary
26! SHIGA NAOYA: Han's Crime
272 SHIGA NAOYA: At Kinosaki
278 KIKUCHI KAN: Tht Madman on the Roof
288 KUME MASAo: The Tiger
300 AKUTAGAWA RYii'NosuKE: Kesa and Morito
3°7 AKUTAGAWA RYUNOSUKE: Hell Screen
333 KOBAYASHI TAKIJI: The Cannery Boat
339 YOKOMITSU RUCH!: Time
357 HINO ASHIHEI: Earth and Soldiers
INTRODUCTION
3(;6 KAWABATA YASUNARI; The Mole
375 Modern Poetry: II
381 Modern Haiku: II
383 TANIZAKI JUNICHIRo: The Firefly Hunt
387 TANIZAKI JUNICHIRo: The Mother of Captain Shigemoto
398 DAZAI osAMu: Villon's Wife
415 HAYASHI FUMIKO: Tokyo The transformation of Japan within the space of about forty years
429 MISHIMA YU KIO: Omi from an obscure oriental monarchy to one of the great powers is
accounted a miracle of the modern age. With the most rapid efforts
Short Bibliography Japan shook off the encumbering weight of a past of isolation and
ignorance, and astonished the world by victory in a war with Russia
and the winning of an equal alliance with England. Military suc
cesses and the development of industrial enterprises-and also the
growth of scientific learning-made Japan the leader of eastern Asia.
Many striking parallels may be drawn between the history and
the literature of Japan during this period. In 1868, when the youth
ful Emperor Meiji assumed control of the government after six cen
turies of rule by military men, Japanese literature had dropped to
one of its lowest levels. The popular authors of the time specialized
in books of formless, almost meaningless gossip. The country, which
had been turned in on itself during almost 250 years of isolation~
seemed to have exhausted its own resources. The gaiety had left the
gay quarters, the center of much of the literature of the seventeeµth
and eighteenth centuries; and the rouged animation of anecdotes
about the courtesans of the day was ugly and meretricious. And yet,.
within the same forty years that elapsed between the Meiji Restora
tion and the Russo-Japanese War, Japanese literature moved from
idle quips directed at the oddities of the West to Symbolist poetry,
from the thousandth-told tale of the gay young blade and the harlots
to the complexities of the psychological novel.
The military and commercial successes of Japan have been attrib
uted by Western critics to the Japanese genius for imitation, and this
very skill has been often considered a discredit, as if it were somehow
more admirable to imitate badly. The literature and art of modern
Japan have been open to similar attack by those who deplore any
deviations from what they consider to be the "pure Japanese." Such