Page:Tayama Katai and His Novel Entitled Futon (Reece).pdf/51



Katai reminisces about his motive for writing in his memoirs:

"In every respect, it must have been Hauptmann's [] which suggested to me most of the ideas for writing . Needless to say, if my own Anna Mahr had not shown up in my actual life, would not have been written even though I already had that idea."

From this statement it seems that when writing two conditions were necessary for Katai. First, it was necessary to have Hauptmann's as his reference. Second, it was advantageous for Katai to have met Michiyo who became Katai's counterpart to Anna Mahr in Hauptmann's. Therefore we should trace how and when these conditions came together in Katai's thoughts.

Hauptmann's was published in 1891. Katai says it was about 1899 or 1900 that he first heard the name of Hauptmann mentioned among the literati. However, the actual date when Katai read is not known. Yet as far as can be ascertained, there is evidence that Katai had a copy of which he loaned to his friend Tōson as mentioned in a letter from Tōson to Katai dated October 26, 1901. In this letter it is clear that Tōson is