Page:Modern Japanese Novels and the West.pdf/17

 Inspiring Instances of Statesmanship by Yano Ryûkei, an historical novel about Epaminondas of Thebes. We may feel that the career of an ancient Greek general was not an auspicious subject for the fledgling Japanese literary movement, but the novel was acclaimed in its day by readers who saw in the virtuous and heroic actions of Epaminondas a model for the Japanese. When this novel was dramatized and performed on the Tokyo stage the characters wore traditional Japanese garb and not the togas of ancient Greece. Inspiring Instances of Statesmanship was welcomed by the public not for its exotic or antiquarian details but for its revolutionary message.

Another highly successful political novel, Fortuitous Meetings With Beautiful Women by “The Recluse of the Eastern Seas,” appeared in 1885–87. This work describes a Japanese wanderer, first inspired by the ideals of the American Revolution to plan the enfranchisement of Asia. Everywhere he goes he meets revolutionaries who have suffered for freedom, including two extraordinary ladies, an Irish beauty named Crimson Lotus who fought against English rule, and a Spanish noblewoman