Decadent Literature in Twentieth-Century Japan

I. Amano

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781137377432
• Topic: Littérature
• Subtopic: Critique littéraire

Decadence is a concept that designates a given historical moment as a phase of decay and valorizes the past as an irretrievable golden age. This study offers an innovative examination of a century of Japanese fiction through the analytical prism of decadence.

NOTES

Introduction The Making of Decadence in Japan

1. Nakao Seigo, “Regendered Artistry: Tanizaki Junichiro and the Tradition of Decadence,” (Ph.D. Diss. New York U, 1992), p. 53.

2. Homi K. Bhabha, The Location of Culture. New York: Routledge, 1994, p. 122.

3. Ibid., p. 123.

4. Ibid., p. 130.

5. Kamishima Jirō, Kindai nihon no seishin kōzō [The Structure of the Modern Japanese Mind]. Tokyo: Iwanami, 1961, p. 183. Kamishima introduces the word “reiki” (encouraging reinforcement) to describe the acculturation process that appeared to further the social phenomenon of decadence in late Meiji Japan. He argues that individualism, the decay of conventional ethics, the corruption of public morals, and a collective neurosis, etc., were ubiquitous by the end of the Meiji period. According to Kamishima, these social factors already existed in pre-Meiji Japan, but became more visible in the 1900s. These indigenous factors were not transplanted but simply “reinforced” through contact with the West.

6. In reality, Ariwara no Narihira lived in the ninth century (825–880). Ise Monogatari offers a fictional version of Narihira and places him in the context of the year 950 or thereabouts. Karaki traces Narihira’s decadent image not on the basis of biographical facts but via the fictional image created by the author of Ise Monogatari. See Karaki Junzō, Muyōsha no keifu. Tokyo: Chikuma, 1960, p. 10.

7. Fujiwara no Kusuko (?–810), a daughter of Fujiwara no Tanetsugu and the wife of Fujiwara no Tadanushi, was Emperor Heijō’s mistress. She and her brother, Fujiwara no Nakanari, vehemently opposed the Emperor’s decision to leave the throne. After retiring, the Emperor returned to Heijōkyō, but because of an amendment to the law related to the Inspector General (kansatsushi) that was initiated by Emperor Saga, the two emperors confronted each other. By using her political power, Kusuko intensified the antagonism between them by encouraging Emperor Heijō to declare the Heijō sento (the re-establishment of the capital in Heijō, today’s Nara). However, they were besieged by Emperor Saga’s military force, and when their attempt at striking back with the support of the Eastern squads became known, Saga was quick enough to prevent the plan. Consequently, Emperor Heijō was forced to enter the priesthood, and Kusuko committed suicide. For more details about the Incident of Fujiwara no Kusuko, see John Whitney et al., eds., The Cambridge History of Japan vol. 2: Heian Japan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999, pp. 33–4.

8. Ibid., p. 10.

9. Ibid.

10. Ibid., p. 15.

11. Ibid., p. 19.

12. Ibid., p. 59.

13. Ibid. The Mahāyāna Buddhist belief in ma...