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Historians of modern literature have generally used the year 1885 to mark the inception of western style fiction in Japan. For it was in that year that one of the pioneers of Meiji literature, Tsubouchi Shōyō, published, or , which contained the first literary theory that set forth the basic ideals of modern literature.

Shōyō, deploring the poor quality of Japanese literature of his time, sought to improve this situation by adopting realistic approaches to the western point of view by abandoning Gesaku, or the demi-novel, as an instrument of didactic intent.

The contribution of to the development of modern Japanese literature was profound. Shōyō enhanced the status of the novel as one aspect of the fine arts, and by rejecting any didactic purposes utilized by the Tokugawa regime, paved the way for his fellow writers. His introduction of the literary techniques of Scott, Lytton, Smollet, Fielding, and others is well taken for illustrating his theory of "," or "copying" of human behavior. Shōyō put into practice his theory of realism by writing his own novel, or , but "the material was still of the old genre, and his literary expression on many