Introduction of Western literature
Translations from European languages of nonliterary works began to appear soon after the Meiji Restoration.
The most famous example was the translation (1870) of Samuel Smiles’s Self-Help; it became a kind of bible for ambitious young Japanese eager to emulate Western examples of success.
The first important translation of a European novel was Ernest Maltravers, by the British novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton, which appeared in 1879 under the title Karyū shunwa (“A Spring Tale of Blossoms and Willows”).
The early translations were inaccurate, and the translators unceremoniously deleted any passages that they could not understand readily or that they feared might be unintelligible to Japanese readers.
They also felt obliged to reassure readers that, despite the foreign names of the characters, the emotions they felt were exactly the same as those of a Japanese.
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Modern literature
Even after the arrival of Commodore Matthew C.
Perry’s U.S.
Navy fleet in 1853 and the gradual opening of the country to the West and its influence, there was at first little noticeable effect on Japanese literature.
The long closure of the country and the general sameness of Tokugawa society for decades at a time seemed to have atrophied the imaginations of the gesaku writers.
Even the presence of curiously garbed foreigners, which should have provoked some sort of reaction from authors searching for new material, initially produced little effect.
The gesaku writers were oblivious to the changes in Japanese society, and they continued to grind out minor variants on the same hackneyed themes of the preceding 200 years.
,
Overview
Even after the arrival of Commodore Matthew C.
Perry’s U.S.
Navy fleet in 1853 and the gradual opening of the country to the West and its influence, there was at first little noticeable effect on Japanese literature.
The long closure of the country and the general sameness of Tokugawa society for decades at a time seemed to have atrophied the imaginations of the gesaku writers.
Even the presence of curiously garbed foreigners, which should have provoked some sort of reaction from authors searching for new material, initially produced little effect.
The gesaku writers were oblivious to the changes in Japanese society, and they continued to grind out minor variants on the same hackneyed themes of the preceding 200 years.
,
What are some examples of science fiction in Japan?
Another notable piece of fictional Japanese literature was Konjaku Monogatarishū, a collection of over a thousand stories in 31 volumes.
The volumes cover various tales from India, China and Japan.
The 10th-century Japanese narrative, The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter (Taketori Monogatari), can be considered an early example of proto- science fiction.
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What influenced Japanese literature?
Japanese literature throughout most of its history has been influenced by cultural contact with neighboring Asian literatures, most notably China and its literature.
Early texts were often written in pure Classical Chinese or lit. 'Chinese writing' (漢文, kanbun), a Chinese-Japanese creole language.
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When did Japanese literature first come to Japan?
In the forward, the book’s editor, Ivan Morris, who translated some of the stories, provides a brief Japanese history from the Meiji Era, when the Western form of literature was first introduced to Japan.
Foreign novels were often translated by the Japanese authors, who then in turn were heavily influenced by the literary movement of the time.
