Page:Tayama Katai and His Novel Entitled Futon (Reece).pdf/45

 In May 1907 he wrote, or , in June , or , and in September.

To recapitulate, then, Katai's literary career before the publication of can be broken down into three periods according to the nature of his work and his intentions: (1) His early period began in 1885 when he started composing Chinese poems, as befitted the son of a samurai, and ended in 1889, the year he married. (2) His formative naturalistic period ended in 1905. (3) His experimental stage began in 1906. In September 1907 he was recognized as a naturalist with the publication of.

(1) The characteristics of Katai's early works were those of a "nature" poet who was taught to express his emotions freely.

(2) Katai started as a writer at an early age, but during this period he had not grasped an understanding of the prose medium. It was in this formative naturalistic period (1900–05) that Katai was inspired by Maupassant's works. Katai relates his impression of Maupassant in his memoir :

"How my mind, eyes, and body were struck with wonder at these twelve volumes of exciting ! I had previously been deeply moved by Emile Zola's but my wonder at was not at all that sort of thing. . ..

Perhaps my state of mind might have reached the right sort of transitional stage. In any case I was completely changed by these."

Katai was searching for a new descriptive style, a new path initially opened up by Zola's naturalism, but it was Maupassant who