Copyright by Maeri Megumi 2014
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Copyright by Maeri Megumi 2014 The Dissertation Committee for Maeri Megumi Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Religion, Nation, Art: Christianity and Modern Japanese Literature Committee: Kirsten C. Fischer, Supervisor Sung-Sheng Yvonne Chang Anne M. Martinez Nancy K. Stalker John W. Traphagan Susan J. Napier Religion, Nation, Art: Christianity and Modern Japanese Literature by Maeri Megumi, B.HOME ECONOMICS; M.A.; M.A.; M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin May 2014 Acknowledgements I would like to express the deepest gratitude to my advisor and mentor, Dr. Kirsten Cather (Fischer). Without her guidance and encouragement throughout the long graduate student life in Austin, Texas, this dissertation would not have been possible. Her insight and timely advice have always been the source of my inspiration, and her positive energy and patience helped me tremendously in many ways. I am also indebted to my other committee members: Dr. Nancy Stalker, Dr. John Traphagan, Dr. Yvonne Chang, Dr. Anne Martinez, and Dr. Susan Napier. They nourished my academic development throughout the course of my graduate career both directly and indirectly, and I am particularly thankful for their invaluable input and advice in shaping this dissertation. I would like to thank the Department of Asian Studies for providing a friendly environment, and to the University of Texas for offering me generous fellowships to make my graduate study, and this dissertation, possible. My special thanks are also extended to wonderful friends: Jen Tang, Eva Liu, Junko Hatanaka, Kumiko Kawachi, Dr. Edeltraud Harzer, Itsuko Igami, Yōko Ijichi and all others who constantly and warmly encouraged me throughout. No words can express my gratitude to my parents, Michio and Sachie Megumi, and to my brother Toshiaki Megumi for always providing me the source of energy when I most needed it. Lastly, but not least, I would like to thank my husband, James Walk, from the bottom of my heart, without whose consistent support, I would not have survived this long journey. iv Preface As a Japanese individual living in the predominantly Judeo-Christian country of the United States, I became interested in the relationship between religion and literature, and their connection to national identity because I began to realize that the many “cultural” differences I experienced derive from the distinct worldviews of Japanese and Christian religions. Having been brought up in an environment where occasionally going to shrines and temples was a natural part of our life without considering they may or may not be “religious” activities, I, like the majority of Japanese people, do not consider myself particularly religious. But I came to understand that such “religious” practices and traditions nurture Japanese people’s worldview and constitute the essential part of our sense of national identity. My encounter with Endō Shūsaku’s essay entitled “Religion and Literature” in which he explores the relationship between religion and literature from metaphysical point of view also stimulated me to pursue this topic, and as an avid reader and researcher of literature, I wanted to probe more about the ways religion can influence one’s national identity and literature and vice versa. Although I am not Christian, upon hearing about my dissertation topic, many people assume I am and that was why I chose the topic of Christianity and modern Japanese literature. This affirmed my suspicion that somehow there is a tendency to believe that only those who are religious are interested in exploring the issue of religion in literature. In fact, many literary scholars who have worked on the topic, like Sako v Junichirō and Kubota Gyōichi are themselves Christians, and predominantly focus on the “religious” aspect of a given literary work when they discuss the issue of religion in literature, such as the influence of creeds or theology, or, in the case of Christianity, whether the authors or the texts are “Christian” in nature. This dissertation attempts to go beyond the confines of such strictly “religious” readings of literary text that have Christianity as their theme. Following the path that Endō set out, I demonstrate how the metaphysics of religion is also extremely important in order to understand the construction of our identities – religious, cultural, national, and even artistic. What I have found is that because such metaphysical worldviews are so deeply enmeshed within our lives and activities, especially in the case of Japanese religion which is known for low- level self-acknowledgement, they often remain unrecognizable until challenged or even threatened by other religions. This is why Christianity is important in my research; this “foreign” religion helped the Japanese authors of my case studies, and me too, to realize, recognize, and even actively shape our perceptions of Japanese religion, identity and the nature of art. I hope to shed light about the ways religion can represent not merely a source of creeds or faith, but even the essential fiber constituting one’s broader worldview. vi Religion, Nation, Art: Christianity and Modern Japanese Literature Maeri Megumi, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2014 Supervisor: Kirsten Fischer My dissertation aims to uncover the complex relationship among religion, literature, and national identity by considering the case of Christianity in modern Japan. Although Christianity was never successful in propagating its religious messages to the masses in the history of Japan, the re-introduction of Christianity in the late nineteenth century left a surprisingly powerful impression because, for many Japanese writers, it presented the “Western spirituality” against which they defined their religious, national and even artistic identities. By examining the works of two non-Christian authors, Akutagawa Ryūnosuke (1892-1927) and Yokomitsu Ri’ichi (1898-1947), and one Christian author Endō Shūsaku (1923-1996), I show how the encounter with Christianity was often crucial to sculpting perceptions of Japanese identity, religion, as well as art in the twentieth century. For the cosmopolitan Taishō author Akutagawa, Christianity was one of the motifs that stimulated his artistic production. Juxtaposing Christianity’s “power that destroys,” he celebrated Japanese religion’s “power that re-creates,” likening it to the vii process of artistic creation. A devotee to art throughout his life, Akutagawa maintained his unfaltering belief that the ultimate creator is art, and not God: he even re-created Christ into an artist in his final essay. Yokomitsu’s last novel, A Traveler’s Sadness demonstrates how Christianity acts as the catalyst for the establishment of Japanese national identity. Written mostly under Imperial Japan, the novel showcases the fear for the loss of Japanese identity in the face of overwhelming Western influence, as well as the urge to establish one, utilizing Ancient Shinto as the source. Ironically, however, it is discovered only when pitted against Christianity, the foreign religion. Endō began his career as an author because he wanted to reconcile his conflicting Christian and Japanese identities. Even though he initially scrutinized his native country of Japan and its religion with his internalized, critical Catholic gaze, his artistic endeavor gradually transformed Endō into what I call a “catholic” Catholic: he came to embrace Japanese religions and heritage without denouncing his Catholic faith. Even though these three authors had different motivations and issues to tackle, their negotiations illuminate how complex and interconnected are the relationships among their religious, national and artistic identities. viii Table of Contents Introduction ..............................................................................................................1 Chapter 1 Religion, Literature, and Nationalism in Japan ....................................13 1. Three Major Differences Between Christianity and Japanese Religions ..14 2. Religion and Literature in Pre-Modern Japan ...........................................21 3. Religion, Literature, and National Identity: The Beginning of the Three Way Conversation ........................................................................................26 4. Modern Japan: Literature for Literature’s Sake ........................................34 5. Modern Japanese Literature and Christianity ...........................................43 Chapter 2 Aesthetics of an Atheist: Akutagawa Ryūnosuke ................................50 1. Early Infatuation .......................................................................................52 2. Leaving Christian Exoticism .....................................................................56 3. Recreating Christ into Artist .....................................................................70 Chapter 3 The “Pure Novel” of the Lost Home:Yokomitsu Ri’ichi’s Ryoshū ....83 1. Yokomitsu’s “Pure Popular Novel” ..........................................................84 2. Themes in A Traveler’s Sadness ...............................................................90 2-1. The Marriage between Ancient Shinto and Catholicism ..............93 2-2. Endless debate over Western knowledge - Is Yashiro a Nationalist? ...................................................................................................101