Page:Japanese Literature (Keene).pdf/99

Rh of the original is Japanese, even metrical Japanese, the sentiments are Chinese. Or, rather, we may say that they are a Japanese piece of chinoiserie, bearing the same relation to the originals as our eighteenth-century porcelains and furniture to the real Chinese style.

It must be admitted that the Japanese novel in the early nineteenth century had dropped to its lowest level, tending to be either collections of jokes in doubtful taste, or else dreary moralizing tales in many volumes. It was a denatured literature, possessing little of the elegance of style or evocative power of the famous novels of earlier days. The 250 years of peace had created interesting new problems which should have been the subjects of novels, but the censorship made it impossible for writers to undertake them. The peasant revolts, corrupt governments, awakening interest in Europe, which mark early nineteenth-century Japan, could not be discussed by novelists. Certain contemporary events of a politically inoffensive character might be treated with impunity if suitably disguised, but nothing bordering on the nature of dangerous thoughts could be treated. The writers were thus forced to restrict themselves to hackneyed subjects which could not have engrossed them very deeply, or to trivialities of a most perishable nature.

It was the impact of the West which was to bring new life to Japanese literature, and we have not yet seen the full effects of this, even in our own day.