H 381 The Turn Against the Modern Chs. 4-6.

Ch. 4 The Seinenbun (青年文) Years

1. 89: Who was Ogawa Usen?

2. 92: Who was the critic Kitamura Tôkoku? What was his legacy and how does he fit in with Reiun’s story?

3. Why the “inward turn” for Reiun?

4. What did terms like “compassion” and “sympathy” (dôjô) mean to Reiun? What kind of novelists did he want to see?

5. What about the writer Higuchi Ichiyô why did Reiun admire her so much?

6. What was the “Dark Side” of society Reiun wanted writers to explore?

7. What were the “Social Problems” of the day and how did the work of Yokoyama Gennosuke and Matsubara Iwagorô figure into Reiun’s way of looking at the world and Japanese society?

8. How does critic Takayama Chôgyû contrast with Reiun?

9. How do we assess the meaning of Reiun’s essays during this 1895-1897 period?

 

 

Ch. 5 “Hibunmeiron” (非文明論)

1. 123-127: T.J. Jackson Lears makes another appearance: in what does he see people who oppose modernity being interested?  What kind of shift does Konishi see taking place in the 1903-1905 era?

2. What was going on in “the years before Tenko”? Ogawa Usen's name comes up again...What was his relationship with Reiun?

3. What sort of people did Reiun meet when he was in Shanghai?  What did he have in common with them?

4. Reiun was writing about Pan-Asianism.  How did his views differ from what would come later in terms of the Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere?

5. What occurred during Reiun’s love affair in Tsûyama?

6. What did he write about in the inaugural issue of Tenko/Heaven’s Drum?

7. What do you think Reiun meant by his “Call for Social Revolution”?

8. Who were Max Nordau and Edward Carpenter?

9. What does biographer Sheila Rowbotham say about Carpenter?  What do you think?

10. 149-152: we learn about Henry Louis Morgan’s work on Ancient Society.  How did that work influence both Reiun and Carpenter?

11. On pp. 159-160 Reiun talks more about his “socialism”? How would you describe his beliefs?

12. 163-166 take a stab at summing up the ideas that go into Reiun’s approach to socialism.  What do you think?  What have we got here?

 

 

Ch. 6 “Seeking Rebellion”

1. Ishikawa Takuboku (1885-1912) was 15 years Reiun’s junior; what were his concerns or issues?

2. What does Reiun set forth in his essay “At Nagatamura” (170ff)? What is interesting here?

3. 176-187 what does Reiun want to get at by publishing his book Meiji Hanshinden?

4. How does the "Popular Rights Movement" figure in his narrative?

5. 178-180: Taika Reforms v the Meiji Restoration. How do these two historical events compare?

6. 180-182 what is an ikioi and how does it interact with "world trends" (sekai no taisei)?

7. 184: See the quote from "At Nagatamura": How did Reiun perceive what happened after the Restoration and what was Itô's role? What do you

think?

8. 193-94: Let's consider the two final paragraphs of Ch. 6 from "Reiun's choice to publish..." What is being said here?

Instructions