2 RARE BOOKS LIB. Haryeo,Ca | PLD (Ate “The University of Sydney Copyright in relation to this thesis* Under the Copyright Act 1968 (several provision of which are referred to below), this thesis must be used only under the normal conditions of scholarly fair dealing for the purposes of research, criticism or review. In particular no results or conclusions should be extracted from it.nor should it be copied ‘or closely paraphrased in whole or in part without the written consent of the author. Proper written acknowledgement should bbe made for any assistance obtained from this thesis. Under Section 35(2) of the Copyright Act 1968"the author of a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work is the owner of any copyright subsisting in the work’. By virtue of Section 32(1) copyright ‘subsists in an original literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work that is unpublished’ and of which the author was an Australian citizen,an Australian protected person or a person resident in Australia. ‘The Act, by Section 36(1) provides: Subject to this Act, the copyright in a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work is infringed by a person who, not being the owner of the copyright and without the licence of the owner of the copyright, does in ‘Australia, or authorises the doing in Australia of, any act comprised in the copyright. Section 31(1)(a}() provides that copyright includes the exclusive Fight o'reproduce the work in a material form’ Thus, copyright is infringed by a person who, not being the owner of the copyright, reproduces or authorises the reproduction of a work, co of more than a reasonable part of the work. in a material form,unless the reproduction isa ‘fair dealing’ with the work ‘for the purpose of research or study’ as further defined in Sections 40 and 41 of the Act Section 51(2) provides that “Where a manuscript. oF a copy. of a thesis or other similar literary work that has not been published is kept in a library of a university or other similar Institution or in anarchives, the copyright in the thesis or other ‘work is not infringed by the making of a copy of the thesis or ‘other work by or on behalf of the officer in charge of the library or archives if the copy is supplied to a person who satisfies an authorized officer of the library or archives that he requires the copy for the purpose of research or study’ “Thesis' includes ‘treatise’, dissertation’ and other similar productions.A STRAY DOG HOWLING AT THE MOON —A LITERARY BIOGRAPHY OF HAGIWARA SAKUTARO— (1886~1942) VOLUME ONE Carol Hayes A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Japanese University of Sydney February, 1996VOLUME ONE: Abstract Acknowledgements Preface 1: Introduction 2: Chapter One: The Life 3: Chapter Two: Tsuki ni Hoeru—Howling at the moon 4: Chapter Three: Niji o ou hito—Following Rainbows— and the Dialogue Period 103 4: Chapter Four: Aoneko —The Blue Cat 138 5: Chapter Five: Hyot0 —The Iceland 182 Selected Bibliography 207ABSTRACT This thesis is a literary biography of the Taishd poet, Hagiwara Sakutaro, which aims to explore the relationship between the poet's life and work, and to contextualize his role as a ‘modern’ poet through an analysis of his writing—particularly his themes and imagery—with a view to assessing his, contribution to modern Japanese poetry. Sakutard's importance as a modern poet is twofold. He is heralded firstly for the success with which he introduced colloquial idiom into his poetry without sacrificing artistic merit, and secondly for his ability to express the existential despair of the intellectuals of his age, that is to delve into the alienated psyche of the 'modern’ man. This thesis aims to examine this two-fold contribution to modern Japanese poetry and in so doing, to explore Sakutaro's construction of self, that is, how he saw himself, his life and his work. This approach was taken in the belief that this is the best way to appreciate this poet and his work. Sakutaro was a masterful artist, who gave close attention to the internal cohesion of his poetry, and to how he presented it to the world. In his major collections, Sakutard aimed to present a cohesive thematic framework, and this thesis examines that framework. Volume One contains the main body of the thesis, while Volume. Two contains the translations of his three major collections; Tsuki ni Hoeru (Howling at the Moon), Aoneko (The Blue Cat), Hy6t6 (The Iceland), the poetic dialogue Niji o ou hito (Following Rainbows), and a number of extracts from essays and letters, Chapter One, Volume One, is both a chronological history of his life and an examination of how certain events influenced his work, aiming to present a clearer picture of the man behind the poetry. The four following chapters concentrate on his writing, with a chapter given to the examination of the thematic structure of each of his major collections and one to Niji o ou hito. Sakutard drew on three main themes in his exploration of the psyche of the alienated 'modern’ man; the dichotomy between a search for transcendence as an escape from the pain of. existence, and a fear of descent back into that pain; the clash between primitive instinct and conscience; and the desire to return to a pure, primitive state of existence, that is, man's original home. Thus, this thesis aims to explore the life and work of Hagiwara Sakutard, setting out to show how he gave voice to the alienation and despair of the 'modern’ man, and contributed to the development of ‘modern’ Japanese poetry.ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to thank my supervisor Professor Hugh Clarke for his support and guidance. His contribution to my work has been invaluable. I would also like to acknowledge the support, especially in the early days of my thesis, of the other members of the Japanese Department at the University of Sydney. 1 owe thanks to the late Professor A.R. Davis, who first introduced me to the work of Hagiwara Sakutaré during some very challenging classes in my undergraduate degree; he encouraged me to pursue my love of literature. Of the many Japanese scholars who have given me help and encouragement, Professor Kikuta Shigeo of Tohoku University, Professor Haga Toru, then of the Comparative Literature and Comparative Studies Department of Tokyo University, and Professor Kawamoto K@ji, current head of that department, are three who opened doors for me to a much deeper understanding and love of Japanese literature. T also owe thanks to the Japan Centre in the Faculty of Asian Studies, Australian National University, for their help and encouragement since July 1994 when I took up the position of lecturer. Finally I would like to thank my parents and friends for their loving support.PREFACE This thesis is a literary biography, which aims to explore Sakutaro' s construction of self through an examination of the relationship between his life and work. It is perhaps better termed a literary ‘autobiography,’ as it seeks to allow the poet to speak for himself. The complete translations of all the poems from Sakutard's three major collections, are included in Volume Two. All the translations in this thesis are based on the versions in the Hagiwara Sakutaré Zenshiz (Complete Works of Hagiwara Sakutard), published by Chikuma Shobo (1975 to 1989),! and unless otherwise indicated all translations of Sakutard's writings are my own. The poetic dialogue, Niji o ou hito (Following Rainbows), the prefaces to each collection, and the miscellaneous essays included in Section Five of Volume Two, are here translated into English for the first time. ‘Transliteration of all Japanese words is based on the Hepburn system, and the original Japanese word order, family name first, is retained for the names of all Japanese nationals. Further, this thesis follows the practice of Japanese critics by refering to Hagiwara Sakutar6 by his personal name. The titles of poetry collections are given in Japanese, followed by the English translation; however, for individual poems, the English title is used in the main body of the thesis with the Japanese title in the footnote. Footnote references to Sakutar6's work provide first the English title, followed by the original Japanese title; however references to Japanese secondary sources give the Japanese title, with the English translation in paraentheses. Volume Two contains an index of all the poems, by both English and Japanese title, together with their translations. Of the previously published translations of Sakutaro's work the most comprehensive was published in 1993 by Robert Epp.2 His work covers seven of Sakutard's collections of free verse and a number of prose poems. Prior to Epp's work, the most complete translations were those of "Edited by Ito Shinkichi, the complete works is made up of sixteen volumes covering work in a variety of genres: poetry = 3; aphorisms = 2; poetic theory = 2; essays = diary and notes = 3. Volume fifteen contains a chronological record of Sakutar's life, and the more recent volume sixteen (1989) contains hitherto unpublished notes and poetry. 2Epp, Robert. (trs.), Rats’ Nest—The Collected Poetry of Hagiwara Sakuzaro, Yakusha, Tokyo, 1993.iv Sat5 Hiroaki, in his work Howling at the Moon: Poems by Hagiwara Sakutard, which included the poems of both Tsuki ni Hoeru and Aoneko3 Other scholars such as Ueda Makoto, Graeme Wilson and Tsukimura Reiko have also published translations of selected poems.4 Epp chose to arrange his translations in chronological order as he felt that the ordering of the published collections failed to reveal Sakutaro' s development as an artist, Epp's chronological ordering, deliberately destroys the careful thematic construction of Sakutaro's work. Epp believes this approach allows the reader more scope to compare successive pieces of work, and thus the opportunity to assess how Sakutard experimented with and re-attacked the same issues from various directions. Epp's goal is to provide a ‘retrospective,’ which he believes provides a more accurate ‘frame’ for the author, than Sakutard's own framework. This thesis is, however, written in the belief that an assessment of the ordering of Sakutaré's poems is vital to any assessment his work, as are his letters, aphorisms and other writings. Epp criticises what he refers to as the “artificial setting" of Sakutard's own ordering, regarding it as limited because it gives only the poet's "private view of a poem's meaning." Reading the published collections fails to reveal important aspects of Sakutaro's development as an artist. To understand artistic growth, I believe one must rather arrange the several hundred published and unpublished works in rough chronological order. This ordering allows one to study the natural and historical setting of the works. That alone can convey a full appreciation of a poet's development. Historical arrangement will provide deeper insights into the way Sakutaro grappled with certain problems and metaphors, give a clearer understanding of how he tried to explore different facets of similar emotions, and make it easier to see connections among images that appear in clusters throughout the corpus.* In direct opposition to Epp’s methodology, this thesis deliberately chose to run with Sakutaré's own ordering in the conviction that the contexts Sakutaré himself created are vital to a true understanding of his poetry. It is 3ata, Hiroaki. (trs.), Howling at the Moon: Poems by Hagiwara Sakutaro, University of Tokyo Press, Tokyo, 1978. 4See Ueda, Makoto. Modern Japanese Poetry—and the Nature of Literature, Stanford University Press, Stanford, 1983; ‘on, Graeme. (trs.), Face at the Bottom of the World and Other Poems, Tuttle, Tokyo, 1969; Sato, Hiroaki. & Watson, Burton. (ed. & trs.), From the Country of Eight Islands, Anchor Press, New York, 1981; Tsukimura, Reiko. "Hagiwara Sakutard and the Japanese Lyric Tradition," Journal of the Association of Teachers of Japanese, Jan. 1976. SEpp, Robert. (trs.), Rats’ Nest—The Collected Poetry of Hagiwara Sakutard, op cit, p. 32.an insult to his genius to ignore this context. Sakutar6 used his collections to create a thematic structure which overrides the chronology of his work. The three collections covered demonstrate his view of his place in a world where reality was blurred and focus was only found through thematic coherence. An intellectual history which explored Sakutar6's role as an intellectual in his age and examined the intellectual and political currents of Taishd would have proved a useful approach to this poet's life and work; however, this thesis sprang from a concentrated reading of Sakutar6's works with a view to exploring the thematic development of his work and his constuction of self. One problem with this approach is however, that due to Sakutard' s interpretation and re-interpretation of a finite group of themes, there is a certain amount of unavoidable repetition in any assessment of the thematic development of his work.INTRODUCTION (1) Setting the Stage (2) Sakutard's contribution to modern Japanese poetry (3) Sakutard's success with the colloquial idiom (a) Sakutard’s poetic (b) Musicality and language (c) Shifting viewpoint (@ Debunking tradition (e) Coinage of new words and images (4) Success in tapping into the despair of the ‘modern’ intellectualIntroduction / 1 (1) Setting the stage Hagiwara Sakutard, stood at the crossroads where the modern diverged from the traditional in Japanese poetry. He is celebrated for his role in the modernization of Japanese poetry, for building a bridge between Meiji and Showa Japan thereby creating a path to the ‘modern."! He is heralded by many as the ‘father of modern Japanese poetry. Critics stand in agreement with the poet Takamura KOtard,3 who wrote of Sakutaro's success with the colloquial idiom as early as 1928. ‘Are there any truly natural—truly pure—poets in modern Japan?...the only possible answer is Hagiwara Sakutaro.* Sakutard himself was keenly aware of his role as a poet of the new age, feeling the need for a new form to express the sentiments of that age. "Iam stung to the quick by the sorrows of the modern man, and my poetry gives expression to these sorrows,” he cried. In Sakutard's eyes, a poet served society as a journalist, setting the trend of the times through his awareness of the moods of contemporary civilization; "Poetry always stands as a leader of the times; it has the keenest perception—presentiment—of the emotions of the era to come."6 By expanding the range of symbol, image and style, Sakutard pioneered uncharted areas, breaking down traditional boundaries. 'Kawakami, Tetsutard, Kubo, Tadao. et al. (ed.), Nihon Kindai Bungoku Taikei (37)— Hagiwara, Sakutard Shit, Kadokawa, 1970, p. 8. (hereafter Taikei). 2See Epp, Robert. Rats' Nests—The Collected Poetry of Hagiwara Sakutard, op cit, p. 17; Wright, Harold. "Poetry in Modern Japan—some contributions of the poet Hagiwara Sakutar6," Journal of the Association of Teachers of Japanese, Feb, 1970, p. 9. Donald Keene labels Sakutaré "the first truly successful poet in the modern language.” See Landscapes and Portraits: Appreciations of Japanese Culture, Kédansha, 1971, p. 146. 3Takamura K6tard (1883-1956) was a poet and sculptor. He was born in Tokyo, the eldest son of Takamura KOun, a traditional sculptor in wood. Becoming a member of the New Poetry Society (Shinskisha) in 1990, he began contributing zanka to theit magazine, ‘Myajo (The Morning Star) from 1901. The New Poetry Society, also know as the Tokyo New Poetry Society, was founded in 1989 by Yosano Tekkan. Kotard is famous both for his introduction and adaption of Western sculpture, particularly the work of Auguste Rodin, and his modern poetry collections, such as, Ddtei Journey, 1914) and Chieko-shd (Chieko Collection, 1941). An active member of the aesthetic, anti-naturalist Pan no Kai (Pan Society) in the 1910s, Kotard is representative of the Taishd ‘decadent’ movement. See Miyoshi, Yukio. & Asai, Kiyoshi. (ed.), Kindai Néhon Bungaku Shojiten, Yahikaku, 1981, pp. 147-8. [Hereafter Miyoshi, Bungaku Shojiten|; and Davis, AR. (trs.), Syrokomla-Stefanowska, A.D. (ed.), Shijin—Autobiography of the Poet Kaneko Mitsuharu 1895-1975, Wild Peony, 1988, pp. 315-6. (Hereafter Davis, Shijin] 4Takamura, Katar6. Taikei, op cit, p. 8. SHagiwara, Sakutard. (hereafter HS), "Letter to Takahashi Motokichi," April, 1916, Hagiwara Sakutaro Zenshit (hereafter HSZ) XUL, pp. 111-116. Volume Two (hereafter Vol 11) p. 152. HS, "Preface to Aoneko," HSZ I, p. 126. See Vol Il, p. 77.Introduction / 2 Faced with the problem of how to express the dislocation of the modern world in the leisured traditional poetic forms, he began to turn to Western forms and imagery as a vehicle for his poetic expression, becoming one of the best contemporary exponents of nineteenth century Western poetic concepts, especially those deriving from Baudelaire and the French Symbolists.7 This thesis is a literary biography with two primary goals. The first is to present the major turning points in Sakutard's life, and explore their influence on his work; and the second, to contextualize his role as a ‘modern' poet, through an analysis of his writing—his themes, imagery and language—and outside influences, with a view to examining his contributions to modern Japanese poetry. The first chapter is biographical, and the subsequent chapters examine his major collections—concentrating on his free-style verse (shi)—and the poetic dialogue Niji o ou Hito. There are few substantial studies of Sakutar6's work in English® and this thesis is the first attempt to write a literary biography of this poet in English. This thesis is written in the belief that the literary biography illuminates certain aspects of a literary work for the reader. To borrow the words of Jeffery Meyers, the aim of a biographer should be to "understand the intellectual and emotional life of his subject,...to fit everything he has learned into a meaningful pattern and to satisfy his readers’ natural curiosity about the life of an extraordinary person."? Contemporary debate has tended to deconstruct texts and decentre the author, bringing into question the concept of a mimetic relationship between literature and life. The approach taken by this thesis, however, stems from a belief that a writer's own reflections can offer a great deal to the interpretation of his or her own work and character. That is to say, that "biography presupposes the factual data of Twilson, Graeme. "Some Longer Poems of Hagiwara Sakutard," Japan Quarterly, Oct. 1972, p. 170. Wilson believed that Sakutara's work was almost the only example in modern Japanese literature of the successful integration of the Western and the Japanese poetic traditions. See Wilson, Graeme. "Hagiwara and the Japanese Literary Tradition,” Oriental Economist, Sep. 1968, p. 24. 8See Keene, Donald. Landscapes and Portraits: Appreciations of Japanese Culture, op cit; Keene, Donald. Dawn to the West, Holt, Reinhart & Winston, New York, 1984; Ueda, Makoto. Modern Japanese Poetry—and the Nature of Literature, op cit; Tsukimura, Reiko. The Language of Symbolism in Yeats and Hagiwara, PhD Dissertation, Indiana University, 1967; Muta, Orie. Imagery in the Poetry of Hagiwara Sakutaré, PhD Thesis, University of Sydney, 1990. Also see articles by Graeme Wilson and Harold Wright listed in the bibliography. Meyers, Jeffrey. The Spirit of Biography, UMI Research Press, Ann Arbor, 1989, p. 138Introduction / 3 a live existence, if only to provide the nest from which the author's imagination and interpretation may then take flight."!0 The aim of this thesis, then, is to examine this nest, and thereby examine the process by which Sakutard's impressions of his environment are transmuted into poetry, for "the author provides the basis for explaining not only the presence of certain events in a work, but also their transformations, distortions and diverse modifications."!! In Sakutaré's case there is a very close relationship between the poet and his work for as the poet and critic Ooka Makoto!? notes, Sakutaré was a poet who “used even the smallest details of his everyday life to give expression to his inner feelings,"!? and thus his personal writings—letters, diaries ete —offer a great deal to the interpretation of his poetry. SakutarS was born into a time when the essentially stable and integrated world view of traditional Japanese society had largely disintegrated. The nihilism of modern philosophy had begun to erode belief in traditional metaphysics. Western thought was becoming increasingly influential. Intellectuals, such as Sakutard, were forced back on themselves, as the self became the only point of reference in a chaotic world. The response of the ‘modern’ man to this increasing alienation was to turn away from logic and reason, towards sensation and emotionalism, and in this Sakutard was very much a ‘modern’ man. In compensation for his loss of a framework of values and beliefs, and the sense of metaphysical well-being that went with them, moder man turns to sensation, to intensity of experience, as a process that is self- justifying. Strong feeling comes to act as a substitute for meaning. The ever-increasing importance that modern artists attach to intensity of response, at the expense of all other aesthetic values such as meaning, formal harmony, or anything else that smacks of Platonic universals, is the direct manifestation of the growing importance attached to intensity of experience in the modern age.!4 10Groag Bell, Susan. (ed.), Revealing Lives: Autobiography, Biography and Gender, State Univesity of New York Press, Albany, 1990, p. 2. 'Eoucault, Michel. "What is an Author?," Davis, Robert Con. & Schleifer, Ronald. (ed.), Contemporary Literary Criticism: Literary and Cultural Studies, Longman, New York, 1989, p. 267. 12Born in Mishima city, Ooka Makoto (1931- ) is a poet and critic, He isa representative poct of the early years of stability following WWIL [Miyoshi, Bungaku Shdjiten, p. 39.) '3Goka, Makoto. “The Face of Sakutar5" (Sakutard no Kao), Kokubungaku, Gakutosha, March 1988, p. 13. 14De Jonge, Alex. Dostoevsky & The Age of Intensity, Secker & Warburg, London, 1975, p. 5.Introduction / 4 Such emotionalism was the core of Sakutaro's poetic. He valued emotional response over all else, seeking to give voice to the "very nerves of emotion.” The true purpose of poetry is to gaze steadily at the emotions which tremble deep in the interior of the human heart, and to harnass...moods, illusions and ideas, in order to reveal these emotions. Poetry is something which grasps the very nerves of emotion. It is living, working psychology.15 The story of Sakutard's life embraces many of the themes and issues central to the intellectuals of Taishd Japan, such as; the dichotomy between the grotesque world of the alienated modem psyche and the utopian vision for which it yearned, the dichotomy between the attraction of urbanization and the dehumanization of the industrial process, and the clash between traditional values and those introduced from the West. Consequently the study of these themes and dichotomies serves to illuminate something of Sakutaré's success in tapping the feelings of his age. Western poetry was first introduced into Japan through a collection of translations, entitled Shintaishi Shisho (Selection of Poems in the New Style), which appeared in 1882, introducing the work of Gray, Longfellow, Bloomfield, Campbell and Tennyson.!6 This collection is regarded as the first signpost on the road to modern Japanese poetry. Although these translations were not highly regarded for their quality, they opened up new possibilities for the poets of the day, offering them ways of breaking with established tradition. Donald Keene notes that the popularity of this new poetry was largely due to the explosive reaction of a generation of poets frustrated with the overly familiar stereotypes of Japanese poetics.!7 The first new-style poetry, although still basically following the repetitive five- seven syllabic forms and using pseudo-classical vocabulary, seemed very radical. More open and longer than previous poetic forms, the new style encompassed abstract intellectual ideas which had hitherto been seen as unsuited to poetry. Originally called new-style poetry (shintaishi), this new style came to be known as free-style poetry (jiyéshi) or simply shi as the newness wore off. The Western poetic gave the young poets of the early 1900s a chance 15H, "Preface to Tsuki ni Hoeru," HSZ.[, p. 10. Vol Il, p. 1. 16Compiled by three Tokyo University professors; the sociologist Toyoma Chizan, the philosopher Inoue Sonken, and the botanist Yatabe Rydkichi. '7Keene, Donald. Landscapes and Portraits: Appreciations of Japanese Culture, op cit, p.136.Introduction / 5 to extend their frame of reference, both in diction and concept. In the words of Shimazaki Toson, "youthful imagination awoke from age-old sleep and clad itself in the language of the common people." 1889 saw the publication of Omokage (Semblances), a collection of translations compiled by Mori Ogai,!9 containing works of Goethe, Heine, Byron and Shakespheare. In 1897, Shimazaki Téson published his poetry collection Wakanasha (Seedlings) which, as Keene notes, critics regard as the first truly successful collection of modern poetry written by a Japanese poet.20 Although still using pseudo-classical language and classical syllabic patterns, and even dealing with themes long known in Japanese tradition— love and melancholy—this collection had a freshness which stimulated a new awareness of the potential of poetry. 1905 saw a further anthology of translations, Kaichdon (The Sound of the Tide), containing Ueda Bin's?! work on the French Parnassian and Symbolist poets. Although Bin basically maintained traditional syllabic patterns, this work provided examples of a whole new range of symbols and motifs. Sakutar was heavily influenced by Ueda Bin's work, particularly the poetry of the Symbolists—Baudelaire, Verlaine, Mallarmé—who hit a resonant chord as a result of their emphasis upon the communication of emotion and their longing for an ideal world. The spirit of all Western poetry lies in a hatred of ‘the routine’ and in a longing for unrealistic ideals and dreams (Poe and Baudelaire are obvious cases). All poets are symbolists or transcendentalists or surrealists or rommanticists or some other '-ists'; that is to say, they are all 18Keene, Donald. ibid, p.139, Shimazaki Téson (1872-1943) was a poet and novelist with naturalist affiliations. Born in Nagano prefecture, he was brought up by family friends in Tokyo. His most representative works are the novels, Hakai (Transgression, 1906), fe (The Household, 1910) and Yoake mae (Before Dawn, 1929-35), and the poetry collection, Wakanasha (Seedlings, 1897). [Miyoshi, Bungaku Shdjiten, p. 119.) 19Mori Ogai (1862-1922) was a novelist, critic and translator. After graduation from Tokyo University Medical School, he became an army doctor. A period of study in Germany from 1884 to 1888 fostered his interest in literature, giving birth to the translations included in Omokage (Semblances, 1889). He was closely involved with the literary magazines Subaru (The Pleiades) and Mita Bungaku (Mita Literature). Hlis most famous novels are Maihime (The Dancer, 1890) and Gan (The wild goose, 1911-13). Ogai was closely involved with the New Poetry Society (Shinshisha). Miyoshi, Bungaku Shojiten, pp. 255-6.) 20Keene, Donald. ibid, p. 139. 21 Ueda Bin (1874-1916) was a poet, critic and scholar of foreign literature. Born in Tokyo, he began contributing to Bungakukai (Literary World) while still at middle school. Like Ogai, Bin was also closely involved with the New Poetry Society (Shinshisha) and published many of his translations in Mydjo. Affiliated with the ‘aestheticism' movement (tanpi shugi), he was also closely involved with Subane and the Pan no Kai. (Miyoshi, Bungaku Shojiten, p. 28.)Introduction / 6 believers in some doctrine that rejects routine daily life. In contrast, all tanka and haiku derive their spirit from ‘conformity to routine life.'..Such poeticizing of an ordinary view of life presumes enjoyment of daily routine....It is no wonder that in an age of anxiety like ours such a poetry of elegant beauty and leisurely pleasure hes begun to bore readers,2? ‘The Symbolist movement of the ‘West, was born in the last decades of the eighteenth century, when Baudelaire's Les Fleurs de Mal (Flowers of Evil, 1857), was inspiring poets to reach beyond the world of reality—to immerse themselves through the senses in a transcendental sphere. Poetry was required to evoke, suggest and symbolize. Metaphors, analogies, images, and symbols became the vehicles through which poets sought to ‘express their feelings and moods. ‘The Symbolist poets wished to let their imagination run free, choosing to depict form via suggestion and nuances. Their goal was to arouse the senses. They rejected the ultrascientific and experimental spirit of their age, seeking to divest art of the crude and obvious realities so blatantly included in the writings of the Naturalists. ‘They refused to dramatize the intimate detail of the everyday face of suffering. Rimbaud—the nineteenth-century Prometheus, the fire-stealer as he was to be called—shocked the literary world with his violent, hallucinatory, and distorted visions....He advocated a savage rebellion, a concerted disorientation of the senses. The poet is a visionary, a seer, he declared; poetry is a mystic revelation...The dean of French Symbolists, Stéphane Mallarmé...despised the ugliness of the industrial civilization, of which he was a part, and longed to experience cosmic consciousness. His poetry was hermetic, a distillation of complex thoughts he enclosed in words, unusual and revolutionary syntactical procedures. .constructed around a focal idea or symbol, a metaphor which was then developed via a series of evocations.23 Symbolism was all the more attractive in Japan, as it advocated the self same concept which had been enthroned by centuries of Japanese poets, that is the importance of the communication of the poet's mood. Traditional Japanese love of ambiguity and suggestion underlay the success of the Symbolist school in Japan, Sakutard's goal, like that of the Symbolists, was to utilize symbols to give voice to his emotions, using their help to create in the reader ‘an emotional state similar to that in his own mind. 22H, "Poetry and the Literature of Anxiety" (Shi to Fuan no Bungaku), Theories on Pure Poetry (Junseishiton), HSZ IX, p. 85. Noted in Ueda, Makoto, Modern Japanese Poetry—and the Nature of Literature, op cit, p. 173. 23Knapp, Bettina. Maurice Maeierlinck, Twayne, Boston, 1975, pp. 22-3.Introduction /7 Of the Western writers who influenced Sakutar6, it was the proponents of ‘dark’ Romanticism—Baudelaire, Mallarmé, and Poe, in addition to Dostoevsky and Nietzsche—who influenced Sakutard most deeply. Baudelaire created a truly modem form of lyric poetry, in which the poet struggled to express his psychic experiences for his own personal satisfaction, exploring the hidden psychology of his own sense of isolation, his boredom and melancholy, and the power of love to transport one beyond ugliness.24 Mallarmé in his renunciation of the representation of the real, demanded a new form, a new style of language. His quest led him to intensely imagistic lyrics, creating a very science of suggestion through a keen exploitation of symbolic and metaphoric ambiguities.25 Poe, whom Sakutard regarded as a literary deity, was "a ‘writer of nerves’ who in exploring mental and moral disease had opened up in literature an order of experience previously sealed off."26 He worked along the frontier between the worlds of the real and the unreal, with a gift for probing the darkened caverns of the psyche, from which he brought fear, guilt and uncleanliness to imaginative literature. All three had a great influence on Sakutard. Under their guidance, Sakutard explored the realms of the grotesque, searching for a means of overcoming the dichotomy he saw between his own inner world and reality. The grotesque was the canvas of his dark imagination, exposing man at his most primitive. As Sakutard tumed inwards to examine the inner man, the grotesque became symbolic of the disintegration of his personality. By incorporating the grotesque and the destructive, SakutarS added a new dimension to Japanese poetry. Noriko Lippit groups Sakutaré together with Tanizcki Junichiro, Akutagawa Rydnosuke and Mishima Yukio as a writer of dark romanticism, in the vein of Poe, Baudelaire and Wilde.27 In her eyes these four Japanese 24Peyre, Henri, Baudelaire, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs N.J., 1962, p. 3. 25Knapp, Bettina. Maurice Maeterlinck, op cit, p. 23. 26Regan, Robert. Poe: A Collection of Critical Essays, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs N.J., 1967, p.72. 27Tanizaki Junichi (1886-1965) was a novelist, who was celebrated for his aestheticism and sensualism. Involved with the second series of Shinshichd (New Literary Currents), he stood in opposition to Naturalism. His representative works include; Shise (Tattoo, 1910), Sasame Yuki (The Makioka Sisters, 1943) and Kagi (The Key, 1956). Akutagawa Rytinosuke (1892-1927), was a short-story novelist who developed under the wing of Natsume Soseki. He was also affiliated with Shinshicha. Together with the Shirakaba Group (White Birch), he is one of the representative writers of Taisho urban literature. His works ‘lude; Rashdmon (1915) and Haguruma (The Cogwheel, 1927). Mishima Yukio (1925-1970) was a novelist and playwright, whose sensual exploration of violence and homosexuality placed him in the aesthetic camp. His representative works include; KamenIntroduction / 8 writers were on a "romantic quest for a vision of destructive transcendence, a quest which was heavily influenced by Western dark romanticism. They were concerned with the question of evil, the role of the grotesque in art, and the relation of art to life."?8 Their work was a literary investigation of the alienated pscyhe—the realm of the grotesque—which took them in search of a myth, a vision which would justify their exploration and save them from their pain. More than these others, Sakutar6 focused on his own. wounded psyche. He was a ‘romantic gothic’ that is, a tormented "creature suspended between the extremes of faith and scepticism, beatitude and horror, being and nothingness, love and hate—and anguished by an indefinable guilt for some crime it cannot remember having committed."29 His attempts to escape his inner anguish only increased his hostility and anger towards both his fellow men and socicty at large. This focus gives Sakutaro's readers “direct access across cultural boundaries to his psychic pain,” placing him firmly among the ‘moderns,’ as "a modern man speaking to all moderns."30 This thesis concentrates on Sakutaro's work in the new style, rather than his early tanka, as it was in this new form of shi that he made his greatest contributions to modem Japanese poetry. In an essay entitled “An introduction to free-style poetry," Sakutard seeks to define his concept of free-style poetry. He argues that traditionally all texts were divided into verse (inbun) and prose (sanbun), and that anything written in verse was by definition poetry. Such forms as waka, haiku and the sonnet were, he argued, easily defined as poetry, due to their form and their lyric quality. Yet how does one define such works as Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra, or Basho's travel diaries, for although these works are written in prose he felt they functioned as poetry? In Sakutard's eyes, works of true poetry possessed a poetic (shiteki) essence which formed a current—like a pulse of clectricity—which sent a shock rippling through its readers. This shock was the only proof of ‘true’ poetry. Sakutard categorized both the Nietzsche and the Bashd work as free-style poetry, arguing that any work, no Kokuhaku (Confessions of a Mask, 1949) and Kinkakuji (The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, 1956). [Miyoshi, Bungaku Shdjiten, p. 156; p. 4; p. 242.] 28L ippit, Noriko. Reality and Fiction in Modern Japanese Literature, ME. Sharpe, New York, 1980, p. 71. 29Thompson, G.R. The Gothic Imagination: Essays in Dark Romanticism, Washington State University Press, Washington, 1974, p. 3. 30Epp, Robert. “Images of Pain in the Early Work of Hagiwara Sakutard,” The Japan Christian Quarterly, 53:3, 1987, p. 162.Introduction /9 whether written in prose or verse, which possessed this poetic essence— this shock value—should be regarded as poetry. Sakutaré was also attracted to free-style verse because it was born of the changing sensibility of the modern age. The spirit of free-style poetry is the complete opposite to all that is ‘medieval,’ to all that is ‘constricted by metre.’ Free-style poetry is born of a democratic aesthetic sensibility, that is of the commercial, materialistic, utilitarian spirit of this century of modern captialism.3! (2) Sakutaro's contribution to modern Japanese poetry As an introduction to this literary biography it seems appropriate to assess the position accorded Sakutar6, both in Japan and in the West. Why was he so highly regarded? What were his contributions to 'modern’ Japanese poetry? In the introduction to the second edition of Tsuki ni Hoeru, Sakutard unashamedly claims that this work marked the dawning of a new age. There is no doubt that my collection Tsuki ni Hoeru...was the first dawn, the first step in the new direction predicted for today's poetic circles Prior to this collection nothing had been written in this colloquial style....All new poetic styles begin in this collection. All the rhythms of contemporary lyric poetry derive from it. In a word, this collection created a new epoch. It is the first cock's cry at a new dawning.32 This is more than mere arrogance and reflects the consensus in both Japan and the West which holds that Sakutard was one of the prime movers in the development of modern poetry, and that he managed to successfully express the alienation and angst felt by many of his contemporzries.33 In his introduction to Tsuki ni Hoeru, Kitahara Hakushi*4 cites this obsession with inner pain—this constant scratching on the barely healed scars of old wounds—as the very source of Sakutaro's poetic power. 31H, "An Introduction to Free-style Poetry" (Jiyashi Genti no Nyamon), Theories and Impressions of Poetry (Shion to Kans6), HSZ XIII, pp. 75-85. 32}18,"Preface to the 2nd Edition of Tsuki ni Hoeru," HSZI, p. 117. 33See Kitagawa, Fuyubiko. Taikei, op cit, pp. 8-9. The critics he lists include Ito Shinkichi, Kawakami Tetsutard and Kubo Tadao. 34Kiitahara, Hakushil (1885-1942) was a poet, closely associated with the aestheticism movement, who wrote both free-style poetry and tanka. His early work was published in Bunko (Library of Literature) and Waseda Gakuhé (Waseda University Gazette). On becoming a member of the New Poetry Society, he came to be regarded as one of the foremost Mydjd poets. He was a founding member of both the Pan no Kai and Subaru. His representative collections include; Omoide (Reminiscences, 1911), Kiri no Hana (Paulownia Flowers, 1913) and Takyd Keibutsu Shi (Tokyo Scenes, 1913). (Miyoshi, Bungaku Shdjiten, p. 71; and Davis, Shijin, pp. 291-292.)Introduction / 10 You have the most pallid face of anyone I know. You look as if you spend your entire life in pain. Yet it is the pain of the flesh of a pearl oyster as it rubs against a single grain of sand. As the pain penetrates deeper the sand becomes a pearl.35 Sakutaré believed that the root cause of his suffering arose not from external social conditions but rather from something much deeper, that is, from the relationship between fate and human nature. His suffering, like that of Baudelaire, Nietzsche and Dostoevsky arose from “the instincts of the human animal let loose in the natural world, it arose from the carnal desires of the living will. The essence of this problem transcended the reality of the material world, and entered into the realm of metaphysics."35 Sakutaro's importance as a modern poet is twofold. He is celebrated firstly for his success in breaking from tradition to create his own distinctive style of poetry, particularly for the fact that he managed to introduce colloquial idiom without sacrificing artistic merit and to maintain intensity of feeling in longer poems; and secondly, for his success in tapping the feelings of his age through an exploration of the murky psyche of a ‘modern’ man. He was the first Japanese poet to successfully write about the “existential despair of a modern intellectual,"57 that is, the first "to concentrate on developing ways of expressing his interior self."38 He created the image of a deformed man who dreams of returning to a complete self which he believes exists on another level of reality. Sakutard’s break with tradition was not only in his style but also in his thematic concems, and it is these thematic concerns which form the main focus of this thesis. Sakutard's stylistic contributions will be examined briefly in this introduction, while his role as the voice of the 'modern' man will be discussed in detail in the following chapters. Sakutar6's three major collections, Tsuki ni Hoeru (Howling at the Moon), Aoneko (The Blue Cat) and Hydié (The Iceland) were published in 1917, 1923 and 1934 respectively. Critics argue about their relative importance in the body of Sakutard's work. According to Kitakawa Fuyuhiko most critics come down in favour of Tsuki ni Hoeru, however, the fact that Sakutar6 himself, in middle age, rated Hy6t@ as his best work, 35Kitahara, Hakushil. "Inoduction to Tsuki ni Hoeru, HSZI, p. 7. 36HS, "The Revenge of Despair" (Zetsubo no Fukushil), The Flight of Despair (Zetsubd no 1050), HSZ V, pp. 58-9. 37 eda, Makoto. Modern Japanese Poetry—and the Nature of Literature, op cit, p. 137. 38Kato, Shilichi. A History of Japanese Literature—The Modern Years, Kodansha, Tokyo, 1983, p. 215.Introduction / 11 has caused some to question this positioning of Tsuki ni Hoeru.?9 Those who favour Tsuki ni Hoeru over Hy6t6 argue that Hyétd is limited in its visualization of basic human existence and shows a decline in imaginative power,40 while those in favour of Hydtd argue that the early work is too escapist and that Sakutaré faced his existence with more honesty in Hyota4! Goka Makoto divides Sakutard's work into two main periods; before and after Aoneko, using an essay entitled "The difference between poetry and prose” (which Sakutard wrote around 1917), as the basis for his argument. The essay reads as follows; Poetry is for me the solace of my life and at the same time is the ‘confession of my sins' before God. In contrast, prose is instead a ‘prayer.’ This prayer elevates my character and forces both my intellect and my emotions to search more seriously for the ideal. ‘Repentance’ however, is the merciless real exposure of my very nakedness....For me the creation of poetry can be none other than such naked confession in a completely secret room.*2 oka holds that from Aoneko onwards Sakutaré's poetic changed from the ‘confessional’ poetry of Tsuki ni Hoeru, to an increasingly prose-like form. ‘That is, the poetry of Aoneko became a ‘prayer’ seeking to unify his intellectual and emotional response. Ueda Makoto agrees with Ooka that Sakutard's poetry went through a transition with the publication of Aoneko, choosing the images of ‘adventurer’ and 'sentimentalist’ to parallel Ooka's use of ‘confession’ and ‘prayer.'43 In an essay entitled "Two Types of Romantics," Sakutard discusses this distinction. The first type, the adventurers—Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Poe—he defines as those who sought adventure in an unknown land, while the second type, the sentimentalists— Goethe, Verlaine, Nietzsche—were misfits who hated the world of their reality because they were ever in pursuit of lofty ideals.4 Taus in Ueda's eyes, Sakutard changed from an adventurer in pursuit of the holy grail into an angry misfit at war with his reality, that is from a man of passionate faith to one lost in nihilistic ennui. Kishida Toshiko draws a similar boundary in Sakutard's work, 39Kitakawa, Fuyuhiko. Taikei, op cit, p. 10. 49Ueda, Makoto. Modern Japanese Poetry—and the Nature of Literature, op cit, p. 149. 4lKitakawa, Fuyuhiko. Taikei, op cit, pp. 10-1. 42H, "Notes 3," quoted in Ooka, Makoto. Hagiwara Sakutard, Chikuma Gakugei Bunko, 1994, p. 172. 43Ueda, Makoto. Modern Japanese Poetry—and the Nature of Literature, op cit, p. 147. 44HS, "Two Types of Romantics” (Romanchisuto no Nishurui), A Poet's Mission (Shijin no Shimei), HSZ X, p. 26.Introduction / 12 dividing it according to the symbolism created by his verb usage. She stresses the importance of movement verbs in Tsuki ni Hoeru, particularly; nobira (lengthening; extending), haeru (growing), furveru (trembling) and kusaru (rotting), arguing that the collection develops in a sequence; nobiru/haeru —> furueru —> kusaru, finally progressing to hau (crawling) and gydko (solidification; coagulation) which dominate Aoneko. While Tsuki ni Hoeru was all movement: upward growth towards the sky, underground burgeoning of roots systems, longing gazes off into the distance, in Aoneko all movement becomes slow and viscous. Images of movement ceased to be prominent in Sakutard's work from around 1921, Movement—vertical growth, the creeping decay which spread out over the earth's surface, and the longing gaze towards the horizon—ceased as time came to a halt. All solidified into a static immovable state.45 Sakutard drew on three main themes in his exploration of the psyche of the alienated ‘modern’ man; the dichotomy between a search for transcendence as an escape from the pain of existence and an accompanying fear of descent back into that pain; the clash between primitive instinct and conscience; and the desire to return to a pure, primitive state of existence, that is, man's ori; inal home. The following chapters will examine both the development of these themes and the different stages in his poetic development in the light of the boundaries discussed above. In Tsuki ni Hoeru and Niji o ou hito, as noted by Kanno Akimasa, Sakutaro concentrated on the dichotomy between ascent and descent. That is, the tension between a desire for transcendency, a need to draw near to something far off in the distance or high up in the air, and its opposite, a sense of falling back into the horror of the imprisonment of physical existence.46 Northrop Frye regarded such ascent and descent as two of the primary movements in literature 47 describing them as follows; In the descent there is a growing isolation and immobility: charms and spells hold one motionless; human beings are turned into subhuman creatures, and made more mechancial in behaviour; hero or heroine are trapped in labyrinths or prisons. The themes and images of ascent are...those of escape, remembrance, or discovery of one's real identit 4SKishida, Toshiko. Hagiwara Sakutaro: Shiteki Imeeji no Kdsei, Chisekisha, 1986, p. 174, 46Kanno, Akimasa, “Tsuki ni Hoera—Sobyd” (Rough Sketch of Tsuki ni Hoer), Kokubungaku, Gakutdsha, July 1988, p. 37. 47 Frye, Northrop. The Secular Scripture: A Study of the Structure of Romance, Harvard University Press, Harvard, 1976, p. 97.Introduction / 13 growing freedom, and the breaking of enchantment48 The normal road of descent is enveloped in a dream-like haze. Its lower reaches become a nightmare world; "a dark and labyrinthine world of caves and shadows where the forest has turned subterranean, and where we are surrounded by the shapes of animals....[as if] we are retracing...the oldest imaginative steps of humanity."49 Metamorphosis is a central image in this descent, that is, the freezing of something human and conscious into an animal, plant or inanimate object. A ghost or an animal, typically a dog, provides companionship for the central figure as it metamorphoses into this subterranean world. Ascent themes take up the metamorphosis image in reverse, as the central character, with a growing sense of identity, manages to cast off his entrapment or concealment. Frye situates Poe as one of the major writers in English of this descent, and Sakutard is arguably one of Japan's best. This dichotomy between ascent and descent will be examined further in Chapter Two, while Chapter Three will explore the need for a guide, a companion, or vehicle on this journey to the ascendent realm. Sakutaré felt unable to achieve transcendence on his own but with a guide— Dostoevsky—he came to believe that one day he would break through the barriers; that one day he would grasp hold of Maeterlinck's ‘blue bird.'5° In Aoneko the clash between instinct and conscience, sensation and contemplation, takes over as the central theme. A growing sense of nihilistic ennui begins to pervade Sakutard's poetry as the tension between this dichotomy increases. Failure to unite these dualities gives birth to a nostalgia for a primitive state of existence where such dichotomies did not exist. In his desire to rediscover the primitive emotions of man, Sakutaro began to turn back to his own tradition seeing the 1920s as “a renaissance—a period of revival"5! of the poetry of the Manydshi period, which he saw as the embodiment of Japan's most primitive poetic spirit. He wished to return to this primitive state and began to warn against what he saw in many as a blind following of all that was Western, reminding his contemporaries that much of what they were taking from the West already existed in Japanese tradition; "we must awaken from our blind infatuated dreams of the West, 48Frye, Northrop, ibid, p. 129. 49Frye, Northrop, ibid, p. 112. SOThe influence of Maurice Maeterlinck's The Blue Bird, will be discussed in Chapter 3. SIS, “The Symbolism of Japanese Poetry” (Nihon Shiika no Shéché), Theories and Impressions of Poetry (Shiton to Kans6), HSZ XML, pp. 33-4.Introduction / 14 awaken to the true spirit of our Japaneseness."52 This return to man's primal origins began to preoccupy Sakutaré from Aoneko onwards. He began to explore what he saw as a physical instinct which draws man towards light like a moth to a flame. These moths “seem to sense their existential homeland, the very origin of their lives, when they see the beauty of a burning flame. This phenomenon belongs to the primeval mystery of life shared by all creatures."53 Increasingly Sakutard began to use his poetry to probe these primevat mysteries. At this point, a nostalgia "for the eternal homeland of his soul—for an existence projected by his longing" took over as his central theme. In Hydt6 fear and loneliness, born of the inability to capture this flame, are worked into a sense of loss of man's original home. Hyd1d is the winter of the poet's life, a time when homeless he wanders the world with nothing but memories. Like an oyster, his hard shell hiding an invertebrate body, he clings to a rock washed by icy seas trying to remember the warmth of past emotion. (3) Sakutard's success with the colloquial idiom Let us now examine Sakutard's role in revolutionizing modern Japanese poetry in terms of the linguistic content of his verse in more detail. Of all the poets who helped perfect the art of free-style poetry in Japan, Sakutard's importance lies in the fact that he expanded the possibilities of modern Japanese poetic expression.5S He was particularly successful in demonstrating that modern spoken Japanese could be used in poetry in an artistically satisfying manner.56 Certain aspects of his poetic style; longer poems; his introduction of colloquial language; coinage of new words and images; his alteration of the tone and fragrance of traditional themes and images; the musicality of his verse; his technique of shifting perspective, such as a sudden shift from third to first person; his misuse of tenses and punctuation, all add to the startling originality of his verse. In an essay entitled, "On the Poetry Style of Hyata," Sakutard comments on his use of colloquial styles in the poetry of Aoneko. S2HS, ibid, p. 40. 53H, "The Poetry of the Moon” (Tsuki no Shij6), HSZ XI, pp. 197-201. "The Abstract and the Concrete” (Chishdgainen to Gushdgainen), Poetic Principles (Shi no Genri), Ch. 4, HSZ V1, pp. 32-37. 55Kitagawa, Fuyuhiko. Taikei, op cit, p. 9. 56Ueda, Makoto. Modern Japanese Poetry—and the Nature of Literature, op cit, p. 137.Introduction / 15 ...The Japanese language of today, generally speaking, has a blurred inarticulate viscous quality, neglecting modulation, it becomes a monotone....The poetic which underwrote Aoneko, by pure chance coincided with just this peculiarity of colloquial speech....When I was writing Aoneko, my life was all idleness and ennui, in a nihilisitic Schopenhauer-like world, I spent my days dreaming of the joy of entering Nirvana. The English word ‘blue’ for Aoneko, I used in the sense of ‘weariness,’ ‘laziness’ ot ‘hopelessness.’ Contemporary colloquial speech, particularly the stickiness of everyday dialogue, with its boring, inarticulate nature was particularly well suited to the expression of my state of mind. I was afraid written styles of Japanese would prove too flexible, too elastic. The lack of modulation, the vicousness, the sense of clinging to a spider's web, that is, the colloquial style, was a perfect fit; .cin the dim shadows of this place of nothingness I droop low—like a willow—salacious and sticky sukyomu no oborogenaru yanagi no kage de namamekashikumo —nebaneba to shinadarete iru no desu yo. Thus, in Aoneko I utilized the very weaknesses of colloquial speech— although it was all pure chance.57 Kitakawa Fuyuhiko claims that Sakutard discovered the beauty of colloquial Japanese, and that his genius for sound, his magical phonetic sense, allowed him to create a very distinctive poetic style.8 As a result of Sakutaro's efforts, particularly with repetition and onomatopoeia, Japanese poetry became auditory to an unprecendented degree. Miyoshi TatsujiS? regards the distinctive misuse of language in Sakutar6's work, particularly his singular use of spaces instead of commas, and his deliberate misuse of grammar as proof of his modernity." This cavalier attitude to the linguistic rules of Japanese is however one of the points most often criticised by 57S, "On the Poetry Style of Hyatd" (Hydtd no Shigo ni tsuite) A Poet's Mission, (Shijin no Shimei), HSZ X, p. 31. See HS, "The lascivious graveyard’ (Namamekashii hakaba), Aoneko, HSZ I, p. 172. Vol Il, p. 102. S8kitagawa, Fuyuhiko. Faikei, op cit, p. 10. The poet Nishiwaki Junzaburd also praises Sakutaro for this and for his ground-breaking idiomatic expression and his rhythm. 59Ueda, Makoto. Modern Japanese Poetry—and the Nature of Literature, op cit, p. 179. 60Miyoshi Tatsuji (1900-1964) was an Osaka born poet and translator, who was heavily influenced by Sakutar5. Graduating in french literature from Tokyo University in 1928, he began to publish in Aozora (Blue Sky) and Momota Sdji's Shii no Ki (Gak tree). He was a founding member of the quarterly Shi to Shiron (Poetry and Poetic Criticism), and together with Murayama Kaoru and Hori Tatsuo he launched the second series of Shiki (Four Seasons) in 1933, which became the premier vehicle of lyric poetry over the following decade. His poetry collections include, Sokuryd-sen (The Survey Ship,1930) and Rakuda no Kobu ni Matagatte (Astride the Hump of a Camel, 1952). [Miyoshi, Bangaku Shojiten, p. 249; and Davis, Shijin, p. 300.) 61 Miyoshi, Tatsuji. "For people who read poetry" (Shi o yomu hito no tame ni), Taikei, op cit, p. 17.Introduction / 16 critics who accuse him of ‘illiteracy’ both in terms of his grammar and character usage.©? This so-called misuse of language, is however, proof of the modemity of Sakutard's work, reflecting his revolutionary role in the development of modern Japanese poetry. (a) Sakutaro's poetic To explore Sakutaré's stylistic contributions to modern poetry, we must first examine his concept of poetry. Sakutard saw the spirit of poetry as both subjective and idealistic, and his aim, as discussed above, was to present his emotions—through an almost telepathic rhythm—to his readers. He rejected poetic styles which he regarded as nothing but superficial descriptions of objective reality, preferring to explore extremes of emotion. His emotions ranged from the sentimental to the violently self-destructive, from a passionate faith to a nihilistic ennui. The tension which arises from these conflicting extremes underlies much of his work. He believed that if one wanted to portray an idea one became a novelist or a philosopher, but if one wanted to portray emotion one became a poet. Unlike the conscious thought of a philosopher, Sakutard believed that a poet felt truth intuitively,63 and it was this intuition, born of the unconscious, which gave birth to poetry. Life is made up of two types of time; night and day; dream and reality. Unconscious life and conscious life. Literature too is divided into two such groups. Poetry deals with images floating in a dream at night; prose with conscious perceptions of reality in the daytime....it is poetry which gives expression to the essence of the poet's self, which appears and disappears in the twilight zone of consciousness.6+ Sakutard believed that he could only create poetry in moments of extreme emotion; the essence of his creativity was unconscious and instinctive. I cannot write poetry unless I am in a state of mental derangement. Perhaps ‘mental derangement’ is a rather strange way of putting it, but without the violent waves and heated combustion of the subjective setting life aflame, I just cannot write lyric poetry.65 To Sakutard a poem was a poem less on account of its form than on account 62See Kimata, Osamu. Taikei, op cit, p. 17. 63HS, "Poets and Critics" (Shijin to HyOronka), A Poet's Mission (Shijin no Shimei), HSZ. X, p. 101. 64HS, “Poetry and Prose" (Shi to Sanbun), At the Harbour (Miyako nite), HSZ V, p. 137. ©5HS, “Hagiwara Sakutaro—Comments on Poetic Creation” (Hagiwara Sakutaro— Shisakudan), Taikei, op cit, p. 192.Introduction / 17 of its spirit or inner emotion; he asked his readers to avoid intellectualizing his work, instead requiring they look deeper into the inner core, at the emotions themselves. What I ask of you my readers, is that you pass over the concepts and little incidents which occupy the surface of my poetry, Rather, I want you to touch the emotions deep in the inner core.66 Rhythm became the vehicle for the expression of these emotions. Sakutard defines two types of rhythm in his work, structural auditory rhythm which has the features of music, and ‘emotive’ rhythm which has more to do with subjective imagery than style. The structural rhythm was a harmonious flow of sounds and words achieved by alliteration, end-rhymes, assonance and repetition, and served as a conduit for the emotive rhythm. The emotive rhythm was an ‘inner rhythm’ through which the poet projected his vision, that is, communicated his emotion. A harmonious marriage between the two was one of the primary goals of Sakutard's poetic and he worked with free- style poetry because it was the best vehicle for his emotive rhythm. Free-style verse destroyed the prescribed rules of metre and created the possibility of rhythm without metre. That is to say, although free-style poetry may be written in prose, it still possesses emotive poetic rhythm.57 This emotive rhythm was central to Sakutar6’s poetic and he felt no one would understand his poetry without an empathy with this rhythm. Emotive rhythm stimulated a certain emotional response in the reader. He felt that as Japanese lacked the auditory rhythm of Western poetry, it was up to poets like himself to develop this emotive rhythm, which dissolved distinctions between objects and words, sweeping all before it in a tide of sound and feeling. Rhythm is the prime formative element of music, a temporal movement of sounds that produces an intended emotional effect. In language it designates a regulated flow of stress, syllabic patterns or other phonetic patterns. For Sakutaro, rhythm need not be limited to aural patterns but could be an arrangement of colours, forms, or any sensory stimulus, which grouped into a certain pattern could produce an aesthetic response. In the preface to Tsuki ni Hoeru, Sakutard secks to define his concept of emotive rhythm. T express my own peculiar complicated emotions—the sadness, the joy, the loneliness, the fear in my heart—and other emotions, hard to express 66HS, “Preface to Tsuki ni Hoeru, HSZ 1, p. 10. Vol Il, p. 1. 67H, "An Introduction to Free-style Poetry" (Jiyishi Genri no Nyamon), Shiron to Kanso, HSZ. XII, pp. 75-85.Introduction / 18 in words or phrases, in the rhythm of my poetry. This rhythm, however, is not an explanation; it is a telepathic link between myself and my readers. I can only communicate—taking their hands in mine—with those who can perceive this rhythm in the silence beyond the realm of words.68 The only hope of communication was through poetic images or music. Musical intoxication was of major importance; I place much more importance on the musical intoxication created by the beauty of the rhythmic structure, more than on the main themes which express the central poetic thought.6? In Sakutard's eyes, the emotions of an individual were firmly rooted in that individual's psyche. To truly express the "how" of emotion—the way one feels—words must shed their logic and approach the realm of music—a medium uncompromised by designated meanings. In poetry, as in music, it is the mood which smoke-like, creates a redolence, a fragrance which weaves through the spaces between the letters of the words, offering glimpses of that inner emotion. Sakutard did not want to complicate his poetry with prescribed structures, nor did he wish his readers to analyse his work as that would destroy the poetry. He rather sought to create a loose veil-like form, which allowed the scent of the poem's inner core—the emotions trembling in the interior—to escape. In all good lyric poetry, there is a sense of beauty which cannot be explained either by words or logic. This is the redolence of the poem.... It is this redolence which produces that intoxicated elation, which is the true goal of poetry. A poem in which this redolence is thin and vapid has little value as poetry. It is like sake which has lost its fragrance and flavour. I dislike such sake.70 Sakutard sought to create poetry, in which his inner emotion flowed out through the images and rhythms, unrestrained by the superficial over- structure of the words. He sought a rhythmic fusion of objective description and subjective emotion. Borrowing the metaphors of ‘colour’ and ‘light’ from Shi no Genri (Poetic Principles, 1923), Kishida Toshiko defines Sakutard's poetic as poetry born of ‘light.’ Sakutard stood in opposition to poetry of ‘colour,’ feeling that poetry must be born of ‘light.’ Concept, form, philosophy, science, objectivity, all stood on the side of ‘colour,’ while emotion, life, 68H, "Preface to Tsuki ni Hoeru," HSZ1, p. 11. Vol Il, p. L 69HS, "On the Shinkokinsha" (ShinkokinshG ni tsuite), HSZ VII, p.160. See Kubo, Tadao. Taikei, op cit, pp. 163-3. ‘T0HS, "Preface to Tsuki ni Hoeru,” HSZ 1, p. 10-1. Vol I, p. 1.Introduction / 19 ryhthm and sentimentality, were on the side of ‘light.’ ‘Colour’ was static, in contrast to ‘light’ which was movement, and all true poetry in Sakutaro' s eyes must be poetry of movernent.7! Let us now examine some of the specific features of his style which reflect the ‘modem’ in his work. (b) Musicality and language As mentioned above, the musicality of his verse is often cited as one of Sakutard's major contributions to modern poetry.7? He created a "symphony of words" through the comprehensive use of tone, tempo, nuance, mood and images, all of which were carried by both the emotive rhythm and auditory rhythm.?3 In Tsuki ni Hoeru, auditory rhythm was achieved mainly through verbal and phonetic repetition, while in Aoneko, Sakutaré began to use more and more aural elements, particularly ‘onomatopoeia. The Tsuki ni Hoeru poem, “Bamboo," is a good example of the musical quality of his verbal repetition. Bamboo grows from the shining ground pale green bamboo grows bamboo roots grow under the ground... bamboo—bamboo—bamboo grows.74 Hikaru jimen ni take ga hae aotake ga hae chika niwa take no ne ga hae... take, take, take ga hae. ‘The repetition of the verb hae and the noun fake create a musical rhythm which becomes the pulse beat for the growing bamboo, creating a sense of immanence, of movement in the poem,75 Naka Taré also notes that the TiKishida, Toshiko. Hagiwara Sakutard: Shiteki Imeeji no Kasei, op cit, pp. 11-13. ‘T2See Ueda, Makoto. Modern Japanese Poetry—and the Nature of Literature, op cit, p. 179 for musicality. See Fujikawa, Hideo. "Hagiwara Sakutar6 to PO" (Hagiwara Sakutard and Poe), Hagiwara Sakutaré, Bungei Dokuhon, Kawade Shobd Shinsha, 1976, p. 104; See Naka, Tar6. "Sakutaré no Shi no Ongakusai” (The Musicality of Sakutard's Poetry), Hagiwara Sakutard: Nikon no Saka (10), op cit, p. 142; Kitagawa Toru, "Aoneko sutairu to wa nani ka" (What is the style of Aoneko?), Hagiwara Sakutard: Shi no Genri Ron (On Hagiwara Sakutard's Poetic Principles), Chikuma Shobd, 1987, p. 102, for more on onomatopoeia. ‘7345, "The Rhythm of Free-style Poetry" (Jiydshi no Rizumu ni tsuite), HSZ J, p. 242. 74H, "Bamboo" (Take), Tsuki ni Hoeru, HSZ 1, p. 21. Vol I, p. 8. T3See Kishida, Toshiko, Hagiwara Sakutard:Shiteki Imeeji no Kosei, op cit, p. 174. ‘Other examples of verbal repetition can be found in such poems as, “The sick face in the depths of the ground," Vol Il, p. 6, and “Landscape,” Vol Il, p. 19.Introduction / 20 thythm created by the repetition of the vowels 'e’ and 'a’ and the consonant "Kin take, hae, ne, watage and aotake all add to the unique musicality of this poem.7° The Aoneko poem, "Roosters" provides a good example of the special onomatopoeia he created to avoid conventional associations.”7 An auditory rhythm builds through the repetition of the roosters’ calls. I hear the voice of the roosters calling from the lonely nature of the countryside Toor-te-kur, Toor-ru-moor, Toor-ru-moor...78 Sakutard used this romanization in his notes about this poem, where he comments as follows; ‘At dawn, hearing the distant morning calls of roosters from my bed I transcribed the sounds as toor-ru-moor, toor-te-kur, and then used this sound as the central motif of the poem, "Roosters." The cry of an animal, or the sound of a machine's convolutions are, essentially, pure auditory sounds, and because there is no conceptual, objective way of explaining their particular signficance, the listener can subjectively transcribe the sound however he pleases. Thus onomatopoeia, which is primarily concerned with musical effect, is the best technique for effecting freedom. I chose to use this type of auditory motif for that very reason.79 Sakutaro noted that although a cock's cry in Japan was usually transcribed as kokekokké, the repetitive 'k’ sound was too harsh for the tone of his poem. Through the sounds of Toor-te-kur, Toor-ru-moor he hoped to evoke a sense of sentimental melancholy like the sour smell of rotting white chysanthemums which comes to a man who sunk in remorse, lies awake in T6Naka, Tard. "Sakutard no Shi no Ongakusai," op cit, p. 149. T1Other examples include: owaa and ogyaa for the yowling mating cry of a cat in "Cats," Vol Il, p. 31; old kana spelling of bumu bumu for the buzz of a fly in "The twilight room," Vol Il, p. 79; the old kana spelling of tefu tefu (rather than the conventional cho cho) for the fluttering of butterfly wings in "Terribly melancholy,” Vol II, p. 91; and zushiri batari dotari batari for the pounding crunch of marching soldiers in "Soldiers," Vol I, p. 128. Sakutard's preference for old kana spellings required he specify how much of his onomatopoeia should be read. Also see HS, Meiji Taisho Bungatushii: Hagiwara Sakutaréhen, HSZ XIV, p. 104, for further remarks on this onomatopoeia. In an essay entitled "Sakutar6's Impressions" published in Kanjo in May 1917, Sakutar6 outlined ‘how his use of kanji and kana created different rhythms in his poetry. He notes the importance of clearly enunciating each syllable of his onomatopoeia, stressing for example that tefu tefu must be read, te-fuc-te-fu. See "Literary fragments published in Kanjo" (Dansh6: Kanjé yori), May 1917, HSZ V, p. 425. See Kubo, Tadao. "Sakutaré Shi no Bunseki" (An Analysis of Sakutaro's Poetry), Hagiwara Sakutaro: Nihon no Sakka (10), Shégakukan, 1992, p. 135, where Kubo argues that Sakutaro's onomatopoeia is unique in Japanese poetry. 78HS, "Roosters" (Tori), Aoneko, HSZ 1, p. 164. Vol I, p. 98. 79S, “Notes on my own Poetry” (Jisakushi Jichi), Fukuda, op cit, p. 144.Introduction / 21 bed in the early dawn.80 In addition to onomatopoeia and repetition, Sakutaré also introduced a number of rather idiosyncratic linking phrases, such as; yo ni and yo na mono, which he felt created a limpid softness in his verse. He believed the vagueness they introduced was particularly well suited to his poetic aims.8! Ité Shinkichi argues that Sakutars's use of yd na mono was revolutionary in modern Japanese poetry. By making the subject more ambiguous, it created a haziness, a heavy viscosity, which became a distinguishing mark of Sakutard's verse.82 In an essay entitled "The style of Aoneko," Sakutard explains his use of yd ni—which translates as "like." Commenting on the phrase, hakaba no yo ni ankoku no yoru (a night dark as the inside of a tomb), he notes that the yd ni evokes a stronger sense of fear than would have been achieved by merely linking the three nouns with the particle no. He then discusses the use of this phrase in the Aoneko poem, "Nameless Son; A naked woman, bronzed by sun of the south seas. ‘A mysterious steam ship, reddened with rust pulled in alongside the wharf thick with summer grasses...83 Nanyé no hi ni yaketa hadaka onna no yo ni natsugusa no shigette iru hatoba no muk6 fushigi na akasabita kisen ga haitte kita... He argues that the use of yd ni disrupts the poetic link between the two ines, thus making it possible for the sunbronzed nakedness of the woman to stand as an independent image, rather than as a metaphor for the ship. It creates a break, a pause before the image of the steam ship. Yet in addition to the objective description of the naked woman, the phrase also allows for a sense of the subjective, creating a certain haziness in the poem. ‘When these two lines are linked by the vague phrase yd ni...the first line serves as a description of the scene....The yd ni also has the effect of softening...the picture, allowing subjective, emotional shading. Thus, the poem succeeds in creating a subtle fusion of the descriptive and the emotive elements, that is of the objective and subjective.84 ‘Tsukimura Reiko argues that Sakutaré's use of y6 ni draws on the jo — 80Sce HS, 278-9. SIHS, "The Style of Aoneko" (Aoneko no Sutaitu no Y6i ni tsuite), HSZ VIL, pp. 12-9. 82Sce 116, Shinkichi. (ed.), Nihon no Shiika: Hagiwara Sakutaro (14), Cho Koronsha, 1975, p. 40. 831S, "Nameless song" (Dai no nai uta), Aoneko, HSZ I, p. 171. Vol II, p. 101. 84H, "The Style of Aoneko,” HSZ VIII, p. 12. ‘Auditory Expression in Poetry" (Shi ni okeru Onsho Hydgen), HSZ. XV, pp.Introduction / 22 introduction—in classical Japanese poetry.85 In his discussion of the Kokinsha, Sakutard argues that the jo works both as an objective description of the scene and as a rhythmic link with the rest of the poem, thus creating the sensory foundation of a poem, He uses the following poem to discuss the role of the jo; ‘A cuckoo calls Hototogisu from within the May irises naku ya satsuki no Tam trapped ayamegusa in the maze of love. ayame no shiranu koi mo suru kana The first three lines, which form the jo, provide an objective picture of the season, that is, set the scene which is then subjectively linked to the narrator's own emotional state. This emotive link is made possible by the fact that the jo also manages to elicit a certain musical tone which induces the dreamy atmosphere of late spring appropriate for love.86 Thus, Sakutar6' s use of yd ni can be seen as his original assimilation of the traditional jo into the modern colloquial idiom. (©) Shifting viewpoint Sakutard created a technique by which he shifted the viewpoint of a poem from an impersonal third person description of a scene—influenced in Tsukimura Reiko's eyes by his reading of the jo—into the personalized world of the narrator by a shift to the first person. This shift in perspective is an example of the emotive rhythm through which Sakutard draws his reader into a particular poem and thus into the narrator/poet's inner pain. The Tsuki ni Hoeru poem, "A sorrowful moonlit night" is a typical example. A wretched thieving dog is howling at the moon over a rotten wharf. Souls listen when with voices steeped in gloom yellow girls sing in chorus sing in chorus on the wharf's dark stone wall. Always 8STsukimura, Reiko. 41. 8611S, Famous Collections of Love Poetry (Renai meikashé), HSZ VII p. 48. fagiwara Sakutard and the Japanese Lyric Tradition," op cit, p.Introduction / 23 Why am I always like this? A Dog! A pale miserable dog!87 The first stanza sets the scene; it paints an objective picture of the howling dog and the young girls singing their mournful chorus. Further, it is an example of the very visual quality of Sakutard's work. In the second stanza, however, the perspective suddenly shifts, and the first person of the narrator suddenly becomes the dog.88 Thus, the voice of the first person narrator transforms the landscape into a metaphor for the poet's inner emotional state. That is, the wretched dog of the first stanza, becomes a metaphor for the poet—becomes his self-image—in the second, The poet sees himself as cut off from the world, a ‘thieving dog’ standing on a rotten wharf, his one poor link with the world. Critics in Japan tend to regard a writer's work as an emanation of his spirit and place little faith in the Western theory which asserts independence between the writer and the text. Thus Japanese critics tend to view the voice in Sakutaro's work as his own, as the howling cry of his inner self, rather than a mask. Although some critics take this a little too far, there is a very close relationship between Sakutard the poet and the narrator in his verse, and the analysis in this thesis reflects this closeness. Another variation on this shifting perspective is seen in the poem, "Death of a frog." To quote; A frog has been killed the children formed a ring and raised their hands all together raised their sweet blood-covered hands the moon appeared. Someone stands on the top of the hill a face under his hat.?? 87H, "A sorrowful moonlit night” (Kanashii tsukiyo), HSZ 1, p. 41. Vol II, p. 22. 88For other examples see "Shellfish," Vol Il, p. 31; and "The Portrait," Vol II, p. 38. 89 The dialogue (taiwa) between Goka Makoto and Naka Tar6, "Sakutard no Atarashii Kao" (Sakutaré’s new face), Kokubungaku, Gakutosha, Oct. 1978, p. 25, provides one such example. In their discussion of the significance of Sakutard’s relationship with ‘Bena,’ they argue that the poem, "Lascivious graveyard’ is set in Spring because Baba ‘Naka died in May, thus attributing Sakutard’s tendency to associate Spring with decay as a reflection of his loss of Elena in the Spring time. Some critics even go so far as to note that the fishiness often associated with the ghost that haunts springtime graveyards in his, work is due to the fact that Elena died in the seaside town of Kamakura. Such readings severely limit Sakutaro's poetry and have little value as literary criticsm. See Kubo, Tadao, Taikei, op cit, p. 427. 90HS, "Death of a frog” (Kaeru no shi), HSZ I, p. 46. Vol Il, p. 25.Introduction / 24 The first section of the poem is used to set the scene and then there is a sudden shift to the man standing on the hill. Goka Makoto argues that the man on the hill is actually the frog itself, confronting his own death at the hands of ‘innocent’ children.9! Muta Orie argues that "the frog, the children and the man are one in different shapes. The scene of the murder by the children under the moon seems like a primitive ritual ceremony of renewal."92 Such rites she argues can be seen as a way of integrating the ‘unconscious with the conscious, yet the fact that the man stands apart on the hill indicates that neither the conscious and unconsious, nor the mind and body, are yet integrated. Okaniwa Noboru labels the man as the "faceless darkness of Japanese modernity," a modernity in which the individual stands back as an observer in the face of the suffering of others, for the individual is all. The shift in focus draws the reader into the man’s world, drawing the focus of the camera up onto the hill away from the children. In this manner Sakutaré forces his readers to relate firstly to the children and then suddenly breaks that link drawing them into the world of the man on the hill. He uses this cinematic technique repeatedly, creating a multiplicity of viewpoints which parallels the inability of a ‘modern’ man to achieve a single united sense of self.°4 (d) Debunking tradi Another key aspect of Sakutard's ‘modern’ style was his conscious alteration of the tone of traditional themes and images. By exposing the underside of traditional images of beauty, he steps out of the comfort system of his society, in a search for a means of expressing his angst. He sought to expose the lie he saw embodied in much which was traditionally held to be beautiful—dawn, spring, cherry blossoms, to name a few. Sakutar6 sought not only to debunk traditional images of beauty, but also to harness the disgust and horror inspired by nature's more unpleasant side by linking the 91Go0ka, Makoto. Hagiwara Sakutard, op cit, p. 142. Donald Keene on the other hand, argues that perhaps the man is the poet standing watching what he was as a child. See Keene, Donald. Dawn to the West, op cit, p. 264. 92Muta, Orie. Imagery in the Poetry of Hagiwara Sakutaré, op cit, p. 121. °30Qkaniwa, Noboru, Hagiwara Sakutard: Inga no Kindai, Daisan Bunmeisha, 1974, p. 38. Quoted in Muta, Orie. Imagery in the Poetry of Hagiwara Sakutaro, op cit, p. 127. 94Sakutard continued to use this technique throughout his life, see the Hydtdé poem “Useless writings” (Muy® no shomotsu), HSZ If, p.131. Vol Il, p. 146. Here he shifts from third person into first person as in “A sorrowful moonlit night.”Introduction / 25 images to the physiological workings of life, as seen through images of swimming bacteria, oozing intestines and radioactive limbs. Sakutaro had a particular dislike for cherry blossoms; "Japanese cherry blossoms have a type of sickly beauty. Surely the cherry is the most illusory flower, the most unsightly yet modern flower."°5 The cherry had been highly valued by Japanese poets for centuries, for the beauty of the blossoms and, when falling, as a metaphor for the transience of life. To Sakutaré the cherry was rather an image of sickness and decay, used as a metophor for lust, a lust which corrupts beauty just as sexual disease corrupts the flesh. Spring comes, particularly in Tokyo, with an amazing amount of dust. ‘A dust which covers everything in a layer of grime—all of creation disappears under this opaque blur. The sight of cherry blossoms... hanging in the dusty air, always makes me think of some rather unsavoury sexual disease. Why have so many people, from ancient times, loved the dirty flowers of the cherry and sung its praises in so many poems? Why on earth have they expended so much adoration on such an uninteresting season as Spring?...26 ‘The pale chalky patch of a syphilis sore with a raw edge of reddened tissue is likened to the translucent white of the blossom rimmed with pale pink. Both the cherry and the season of spring are degraded into an association with disease and lust. Kanné Akimasa argues that seasons are very important in Sakutaro' s work in evoking atmosphere, and that the movement through the seasons seen in his work reflects the poet's emotional development. Thus the movement from the spring of Tsuki ni Hoeru to the winter of Hy dtd, reflects an emotional shift from preoccupations with lust and passion to a cold nihilistic anger.97 Spring, Kanné argues, was particularly important to Sakutard because it was linked to the essence of life. It is a season where one feels a strange yearning, a sense of isolation as the world bursts into new growth. Like his sense of self, Sakutard's sense of spring is splintered. Although spring is a time of new emotion, of brightness and light, this is the ‘951S, "My Favourite Flowers" (Mottomo konomu hana), Bunshd Kurabu, May 1918, Taikei, op cit, p. 183. Murd Saisei's portrayal parallels Sakutaré's, "The cherries have come into bloom. Brother Yamamura, says they rot his nerves. Cherry blossoms flower like syphilis—a dirty yet bright and gaudy flower.” See Murd, Saisei. "Uhdin yori" (From Uhoin), Hagiwara Sakutaro Shi, Taikei, op cit, p. 422. 96HS, "The Poetry of Early Summer" (Shonatsu no Shij5), Hagiwara Sakutard Shit, Taikei, op cit, p. 422. 97 Kanno, Akimasa, "Haru no Kankaku ni tsuite" (Sakutard's sense of spring), Hagiwara Sakutar6: Nihon no Sakka (10), Shgakukan, 1992, pp. 188-9.Introduction / 26 lesser role—the support personality—the main role is played by a misty trembling sensuality, by the sticky dampness of imminent decay. Spring is more often associated with uncleanliness and frenzied growth, like a balloon filled with a putrid mould threatening to burst at the slightest pressure, than with traditional images of fresh new life. In "The substance of spring," the world is invaded by insect eggs. Hitherto invisible they swell larger and Jarger—like breeding bacteria—threatening to burst open and expose a none too savoury interior. Spring is all but bursting swollen with innumerable insect eggs.. they push and jostle each other they pervade the very air growing firm as swelling rubber balls....°8 The Tsuki ni Hoeru poem, “Dawn," provides another such example. Rather than the landscape of fresh beauty and new life one would expect with a title such as, "Dawn,” a world of disease and decay is depicted as the narrator's body disintegrates before the reader's eyes. The uneasy light of dawn only serves to expose the horror born of the darkness of the night.” The tension created by the positive pull of attraction versus the negative pull of disease, becomes a metaphor in Sakutard's work for the contradictions and inconsistencies of life. ‘These are only a few of the many examples of how Sakutaré seeks to undermine images of traditional beauty and as a result succeeds in expanding the range of available symbols by making the underside of life, the ugly and the grotesque, into standard topics for serious poetry. (©) Coinage of new words and images Sakutard made a further contribution to modern verse by expanding the frontiers of imagery, on the one hand creating new words himself and on the other, borrowing Western words and images in his search for new expression. Many of the poets of the day would pick up Western words and work them into the fabric of their poetry, thus adding a modern veneer to their verse. Some were used simply to signify an object which had no Japanese equivalent, while others were used for the sound value or the ‘98HS, "The substance of spring" (Haru no jittai), Tsuki ni Hoeru, HSZ I, pp. 60-61. See Vol Il, p. 33. 99H, ‘Dawn’ (Ariake), Tsuki ni Hoeru, HSZ, 1, p. 55. See Vol If, p. 30.Introduction / 27 image baggage they brought from Western tradition. The word ‘flannel’ is one example of this borrowing. In "The twilight room" in Aoneko, Sakutard talks of a "flannel-wearing possessor of a lonely heart."100 He felt that the touch of flannel was akin to the touch of a lover's hands.!©! Kitahara Hakushé too associated flannel with a lover, feeling that its touch was like that of a one-sided unrequited love.'®2 In the work of both poets, flannel is associated with the sensuality of a lover's touch, thus creating a new metaphor in Japanese poetry. A sensuality heightened by the fact that neru the Japanese word for flannel carries an implicit play on the word 'sleep.” Sakutard's interest in science and industry also led to further borrowing of Western words. Biological imagery is used to depict the raw agony of his existence. His poems are filled with the images of science and industrialization—bacteria, radium, crystal, trains, photographic plates, etc.—that is, of much that was new and modern in the world of Taisho Japan.!03 Photography was one of Sakutard's lifelong hobbies and he often took photos which were deliberately unfocused in an attempt to add a dreamlike quality to their depiction of reality, something he also sought to achieve in his poetry.!04 His fascination with movie making and photography appears again and again in his poetry, as for example in "The portrait" where a photographic image is used as a metaphor for a shadowy picture of the unconscious. The conscious mind of the narrator seeks to capture the unconscious—the subjective—in the objective form of a photograph. .1 took a snapshot. In the faint shadowed light I examined the whitened plate something, just a vague shadow, was pictured,...05 Sakutaro's fascination with photography was heightened by its ability to 100}, “The twilight room" (Hakuba no heya), Aoneko, HSZ I, p. 130. See Vol If, p. 79. See also "Unrequited love” (Katakoi), Vol IT, p. 125. 101}, “Two Letters” (Futatsu no Tegami), HSZ IIL, p. 224. 102"My sorrow wears the thin flannel garb of one-sided love." Kitahara Hakushu, "Unrequited love." See Taikei, op cit, p. 420, Note 146. 103See "The reason why the person inside looks like a deformed invalid." Vol Il, p. 27; “The murder case" Vol Il, p. 17; "The portrait” Vol Il, p. 38; and "Solciers" Vol II, p. 128. Sakutard wrote these foreign words in hiragana in his text (he rarely uses katakana), which he then italicised. The translations in Volume Two maintain this italicization to indicate these foreign loan words. 104See Noro, Yoshinobu. "Hagiwara Sakutaré Kenkyd: Shashin to Shiteki Hass6" (A Study of Hagiwara Sakutaré: Photography and his Poetic ideas), Bungaku Rons0, Feb. 1986, p. 116; Muta, Oric. Imagery in the Poetry of Hagiwara Sakutard, op cit, pp. 116-7. 105HS, "The portrait" (Shoz6), HSZ I, p. 68. Vol II, p. 38.