The Evolution of the Modern Japanese Novel and the Impact of Futabatei Shimei's Ukigumo
During the Meiji period, Japan was faced with a plethora of issues regarding its future. One of these issues was the future of Japanese literature. At that time, novels were still regarded as a third rate art form in Japan, though foreign books were highly sought after by the Japanese public. There were many ways to write Japanese, each system with its own use for specific occasions. And yet, the idea of writing in the style of natural conversational Japanese was considered radical and inappropriate for literature by the general public. Most foreign novels were translated poorly, into a writing style known as kanbun-chô which was mostly based around Chinese loan words. As a result, this style had a very rigid and legal feel, due to Chinese loan words generally having this use when used in Japanese text, obviously this was not entirely suitable for writing a fictional story with descriptive verses and convincing dialogue. On the other hand, Japanese novels were most often written in gabuntai, which was very poetic and descriptive, but was still unnatural for prose due to its heavy use of dated vocabulary, and shichi-go chô (5-7 syllable repeated patterns of verse). In his criticism titled Shôsetsu Shinzui, the established translator, and literary critic Tsubouchi Shôyô writes about his observations of the Western and Chinese literary forms, and muses on Japan taking a similar direction.
“Words are the tools of thoughts; they are also their decoration. They cannot be neglected in composing a novel. In China and in the West, the written and the spoken languages are, for the most part, the same, and there is no particular necessity to choose either as a literary form.” 1
Due in part to these writing styles being so dissimilar from the Western norm of writing similarly to everyday speech, translations were very difficult to write successfully and as a result, early Meiji translations failed to capture the essence of the original books which they were translated
“Words are the tools of thoughts; they are also their decoration. They cannot be neglected in composing a novel. In China and in the West, the written and the spoken languages are, for the most part, the same, and there is no particular necessity to choose either as a literary form.” 1
Due in part to these writing styles being so dissimilar from the Western norm of writing similarly to everyday speech, translations were very difficult to write successfully and as a result, early Meiji translations failed to capture the essence of the original books which they were translated