Abstract
This chapter provides a broader context for issues and themes that recur in this book as a whole. The discussion begins with reference to a woodblock print by the modern master, Un’ichi Hiratsuka. This sets the scene for a reflection on the writings of Soseki—with particular reference to the exploration in his novels of the profound changes Japan underwent during the Meiji restoration. The essay examines especially the teacher figures in Soseki’s work, and through this it explores such matters as accommodation with the West, the semblance of a Western lifestyle, shifts in generational relationships, and tensions between urban and rural life. The reading of Soseki is oriented by questions concerning the reception of other cultures, questions that are plainly central to the ambitions of this book.
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Notes
- 1.
I am grateful to the artist’s granddaughter, Penelope Moore, for permission to reprint Lake Kizaki. Thanks also to Reiko Matsui of the Floating World Gallery in Chicago for assistance to obtain this right. Information about Hiratsuka and photographs of prints is available from the US website at: http://www.unichihiratsuka.com/home
- 2.
Continuing a tradition from the sixth century, emperors of Japan established auspicious names for their periods of reign. After Meiji is Taisho (1912–1926), Showa (1926–1989), and Heisei (1989 to present). Emperor Akihito has given the phrase ‘peace everywhere’ to the present reign. Information retrieved February 2010 from http://www.albany.edu/eas/205/205%20historical%20eras.pdf and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heisei_period
- 3.
- 4.
- 5.
Jansen’s history of the emergence of modern Japan appears definitive today. Historian at Princeton, the late Jansen studied under Reischauer at Harvard and took military sponsored Japanese language lessons in late WWII directed by Elisséeff. In his book’s preface, his is a source for the connection between the latter and Soseki and the indirect connection to Nishida described below.
- 6.
Gessel writes that ‘soseki’ means eccentric or obstinate. See Gessel (1993), p. 21.
- 7.
See Doi (1976).
- 8.
The theory of literature developed from work in London and which might be called a philosophy is collected in Soseki (2009b).
- 9.
Hearn was a journalist, writer and later professor of English studies who spent the happiest years of his life in Japan. His writings were among the first to ‘open’ the country to the West. One important book is Japan: An Attempt at Interpretation, 1904, 1955. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lafcadio_Hearn, retrieved February 2010.
- 10.
Shoguns, usually meaning general, were warlords of pre-modern Japan. Tokugawa Ieyasu united the shogunates and the last period before Meiji begins with his rule.
- 11.
Ironically what also came from the emperor-led nation was the militaristic, ultra-nationalist Japan beginning in the early twentieth century decades, that continued through the century and even is present but without connection to the emperor today.
- 12.
Botchan means ‘Little Master’, referring to an over-protected child, as he is by the family maid. See Doi (1976), p. 12.
- 13.
McCellan writes that this translation from Hearn best captures the meaning of the title. See McCellan (1959), p. vi.
- 14.
While I know that the Japanese meaning of sensi is complex, its general understanding in English as something like ‘honored teacher’ is assumed.
- 15.
McCellan suggests that the title refers to Soseki’s life as an outsider, ‘like a weed growing beside the main road’ (McCellan 1969, p. xi).
- 16.
The historian George Sansom paid tribute to Murdock’s history even as his own project differed. See Hirakawa (1981, 1984/2005), p. 278. Murdock wrote his history as a school teacher.
- 17.
I had determined the categories of this section before I came upon a similar treatment. See Takehisa Iijima (1987), that primarily uses I am a Cat.
- 18.
One of the delightful elements in Botchan is the hero’s use of characteristic nicknames.
- 19.
- 20.
Kimono is familiar to English readers; a hoari is a coat worn over a kimono.
- 21.
Although I have read some of Nishida’s writings; as a non-scholar of Japanese thought I have had to rely to a great extent on English language commentaries for this section.
- 22.
Elisseéeff went on to teach at Harvard and the Sorbonne.
- 23.
In his epilogue, Dillworth compares Nishida’s logic to the work of Jacques Derrida. See Dillworth (1987b).
- 24.
I have used this phrase a couple of times in the chapter. It pays tribute to a very early volume for Western travelers to Japan from Basil Hall Chamberlain who was a professor of Japanese and philology at the Imperial University of Tokyo. See Chamberlain (1905, 1927).
- 25.
Kogo is a box; for antiques these are wooden boxes with calligraphy identifying their valued contents. The other terms—given the two way road of the chapter—are familiar.
- 26.
This chapter is dedicated to my mother, Margaret Duncan Stone, and to James Marshall for support. Thank you to Naoko Saito and Paul Standish for their invitation, infinite patience, and faith.
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Stone, L. (2012). A Different Road: The Life and Writings of Soseki Natsume as a Struggle for Modern Accommodation. In: Standish, P., Saito, N. (eds) Education and the Kyoto School of Philosophy. Contemporary Philosophies and Theories in Education, vol 1. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4047-1_14
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