Page:A History of Japanese Literature (Aston).djvu/364

348 Kiōden's best known stories are the Inadzuma Hiōshi (1805), of which some account is given below, the Honchō Suibodai (1806), the Udonge Monogatari (1804), the Sōshōki (1813), the Chiushin Suikoden (1798), a version of the forty-seven Ronin legend, and the Fukushiu Kidan Asaka no numa. He was also the author of two works of antiquarian research which are much valued by native specialists: these are the Kottōshiu and the Kinse Kikeki Kō.

Kiōden's writings would be classed by us among "sensation" novels. Wonder, amazement, and horror are the feelings which he aims, not unsuccessfully, at exciting. His style, however, is simple and straightforward; and although he can be graphic and picturesque upon occasion, he is not fond of that superfine writing to which some of his successors and contemporaries were so prone, and which is so exasperating to European readers.

It is possibly a mere personal bias which leads me to prefer him to his pupil, the much-vaunted Bakin. If any Japanese novel deserves to be published complete in English dress, one of Kiōden's would, I think, be found the most suitable for this purpose.

His masterpiece is perhaps the Inadzuma Hiōshi, one of those tales of revenge of which the Japanese popular literature contains many examples. The characters are so numerous and the plot so complicated that it is impossible to give an adequate summary of it here. Amongst the incidents related are several murders and homicides, described with much vigour and an abundance of gruesome details, a hara-kiri and other suicides, thefts, sales of women by their relatives, terrific combats, hairbreadth escapes, dying speeches of great length, tortures, strange meetings, and surprising recognitions. There is an excellent description of a Japanese fair, with its booths of