two big novelists a century ago in Japan:Soseki and Ogai
by Akio Takahashi, 2006, Shincho
Today, we have many means of communication: TV, movies, the Internet, and so on. In an age when there were no such means at all, reading is imagined to have been much more influential than it is today.
Soseki and Ogai were great figures who were active in such an era.
Many other novelists were active during the Meiji and Taisho periods (1868-1926). Among them are Koyo Ozaki, Roka Tokutomi, Toson Shimazaki, Rohan Koda, Shoyo Tsubouchi, and others. Among them, these two novelists stand out from the crowd in terms of their literary influence and the level of their work.
This book describes their upbringing, student life, study abroad life, and later life separately. Although they were active in the same period, they seem to have had only a passing acquaintance with each other. They both demonstrated the ability to write novels according to their own necessities from completely different circumstances.
Soseki, who majored in literature from the start, studied English literature, a field that did not fit his original inclination, and went on to become a university professor. However, he followed his own nature and the themes within him to become a self-made novelist by working for the Asahi Shimbun newspaper. The novels he wrote during the next decade of his career would continue to influence people to this day. He died at the age of only 49 (his close friend Masaoka Shiki had a life expectancy of 35).
Ogai, on the other hand, chose a life as a military doctor. His studies in Germany would develop his literary and philosophical artistic background. He lived a double life, writing novels and translating, until he reached the highest rank in the military. He was a genius who left his mark on both. As the author of this book has written many times, although Ogai is highly regarded by professionals, he is not so popular today, perhaps because of his old style of writing. The author points out that this is regrettable.
This book is a good guidebook for those who want to reexamine and read their masterpieces, which we have as our legacy from the era when reading was a major part of our entertainment.
