Kimura Hiroshi

西澤美仁教授・小林幸夫教授退休記念号

Throughout his literary career, from his early enthusiasm for Nietzsche under the influence of Takayama Chogyū, through his involvement in the naturalist school, Kitamura Tōkoku kept his personal interest in the problems of life, and of having a view of life. This trend established by Tōkoku gave rise to literary studies concerned with delving into a writer's personal view of life. The efforts of Tōkoku and his fellow naturalists have tended to be viewed negatively, as an escape from society. But when we focus on this question of “views of life,” we can see that the literature of the time also worked to promote dialogue and negotiations among various powers within society.

（特集2 新聞メディアと文学 明治20年代 = Newspapers and Literature in Meiji 20s （1887-1896 Early Modern Japan））

Following the publication of Tsubouchi Shōyō's Shosestsu Shinzui (The Essence of the Novel), the late 1880s to the 1890s was a period dominated by realism in the Japanese novel. Tokutomi Soho's view of the novel, however, differed from that of Shōyō. Around 1890, Soho asserted that the introduction of Victor Hugo's viewpoint would lead to a renewal of Japanese literature. Soho's assertion, supported by Morita Shiken's article Shakai no tsumi (“A Crime of Society”), obtained wide support in literary circles, stimulating writers to produce a new kind of novel. This new movement later came to fruition in the novels of Higuchi Ichiyō. A reconsideration of the literary activity surrounding “A Crime of Society” helps to shed new light on the connection between Soho and Ichiyō, two writers who, although generally assumed to be unrelated, can actually both be placed firmly within the sphere of influence of “A Crime of Society.”

In 1887 Soho Tokutomi started his magazine Kokumin-no-tomo in which he wrote a series of literary essays and offered many writers an opportunity to publish their works. In the course of such literary contribution, Tokutomi came to be called the “patron of literature” or the “advocator of enlightenment.” But his real aim was to challenge the popularity of political novels which seemed to him very heretical. It may endorse his reputation as a self-interested writer, but it is also true that no one was more eagerly engaged in the promotion of literature at that time than he. Thus his effort can't be adequately grasped merely in light of utilitarianism.

In 1903 a high-school student, Fujimura Misao, committed suicide, leaving a note stating that "The truth of all matters can be described in one word : mysterious." This strange incident stirred up a great deal of public discussion, and three years later, in 1906, a directive was issued by the Ministry of Education in an effort to chastise and control students sympathetic to Fujimura. This study sheds light on the way the Naturalist Movement reacted to the authorities' treatment of the incident. What is particularly noteworthy is the provocation supplied by conservative critics and educators who fiercely attacked Fujimura and the influence literature had on his suicide. Their attacks grew fiercer as they built close ties with the authorities. It seems that those who participated in the Naturalist Movement were keenly aware of this development: that encouraged them in carrying out their slogan, "Overcoming the Old Virtues, Destroying the Conservative Ideology." This also engendered a literary approach that valued depth of sympathy for Fujimura's mental struggle. Furthermore, this development was closely tied to the advent, as the leading author of Naturalism, of Kunikida Doppo, a writer who had previously overcome a great deal of adversity.

Since in Shosetsu-shinzui Shoyo Tsubouchi criticized Takizawa-Bakin for his vulgar taste, Bakin's reputation as a writer had been long seriously damaged. Iwagoro Matsubara, a journalistic writer known for his documentary work Saiankoku-no- Tokyo, was one of those who followed Tsubouchi's negative opinion of Bakin. In the process of criticizing Bakin and being engaged in disputations about his literary value, Matsubara formulated his own method of writing which resulted in his famous reports on the living conditions of working people in the slums of Tokyo. As Matsubara's case typically testifies, Bakin-bashing in the mid-Meiji Period unexpectedly worked as an agent in literary creation.

Doppo Kunikida was greatly interested in the "people's history" advocated by the Minyusha Society. The writer often admitted his sympathy with the society's historical perspective, but he soon found out that the so-called "people" was no more than an image created by the intellectuals. So he sought after a different approach to people and their history. In his novels like "Gen-oji" and "Musashino" Kunikida experimented with it both to overcome the limit of such intellectualist historicism and to demonstrate a historical insight peculiar to literature.