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UC Berkeley UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Eyes of the Heart: Illustration and the Visual Imagination in Modern Japanese Literature Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0777d5sv Author Bassoe, Pedro Thiago Ramos Publication Date 2018 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California Eyes of the Heart: Illustration and the Visual Imagination in Modern Japanese Literature By Pedro Thiago Ramos Bassoe A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor in Philosophy in Japanese Literature in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in Charge: Professor Daniel O’Neill, Chair Professor Alan Tansman Professor Beate Fricke Summer 2018 © 2018 Pedro Thiago Ramos Bassoe All Rights Reserved Abstract Eyes of the Heart: Illustration and the Visual Imagination in Modern Japanese Literature by Pedro Thiago Ramos Bassoe Doctor of Philosophy in Japanese Literature University of California, Berkeley Professor Daniel O’Neill, Chair My dissertation investigates the role of images in shaping literary production in Japan from the 1880’s to the 1930’s as writers negotiated shifting relationships of text and image in the literary and visual arts. Throughout the Edo period (1603-1868), works of fiction were liberally illustrated with woodblock printed images, which, especially towards the mid-19th century, had become an essential component of most popular literature in Japan. With the opening of Japan’s borders in the Meiji period (1868-1912), writers who had grown up reading illustrated fiction were exposed to foreign works of literature that largely eschewed the use of illustration as a medium for storytelling, in turn leading them to reevaluate the role of image in their own literary tradition. As authors endeavored to produce a purely text-based form of fiction, modeled in part on the European novel, they began to reject the inclusion of images in their own work. This literary transformation, from a pictorial to logographic orientation, has previously been noted by scholars, but has often been mischaracterized as a sudden and total shift. In my dissertation, I show that, in fact, illustration remained a major component of literary publications in Japan well into the 20th century, as I argue that experimentation with verbal-visual form was a crucial element in the production of a modern literary idiom. I begin my dissertation by analyzing the work of Tsubouchi Shōyō (1859-1935), who argued early on in his career that Japanese authors needed to replace illustration with descriptive language in order to develop a modern form of writing. I show that in his own fiction, however, Shōyō continued to use illustration extensively, including images that he designed himself. Eventually, he came to see the traditional illustrated fiction of the Edo period not as an early stage of literary development to be overcome, but rather as a unique form of verbal-visual art that deserved to be treated as a national cultural heritage. In my second chapter, I explore Ozaki Kōyō’s (1867-1903) ambivalent relationship to illustration, which he vocally opposed in public statements, even while contributing personally to the visual design of his own work. According to contemporary artists, Kōyō was known for providing self-penned draft images with meticulous notes for his illustrators, while closely supervising every element of his work’s visual expression. In his writing, Kōyō treated visual media as a metaphor for language, which he separated into two modes of representation: the photographic (unmediated) mode, which corresponds to literary realism, and the painterly (mediated) mode, which refers to early modern traditions of Japanese writing. The second half of my dissertation focuses on the work of Izumi Kyōka (1873-1939), a writer whose passion for Edo period picture-books (ehon or kusazōshi) 1 influenced his literary production throughout a nearly five-decade career. In his fiction, Kyōka created a complex visual matrix of symbolic imagery by combining references to art from the Edo period with extensive illustration and densely visual language. Evincing an attitude towards illustration that might best be described as reverent, Kyōka frequently wrote stories about popular images that transform into religious icons, while working closely with his favorite artists to produce spectral illusions that crossed the borders between text and image. His longest artistic collaboration was with Komura Settai (1887-1940), an artist whose romantic images of dark alleyways, faceless geisha, and Edo period architecture intersected with Kyōka’s literary depictions of urban space to produce a ghostly vision of modern Tokyo. 2 This work is dedicated to my grandmother, Vilma, who took me on long walks to the comic book store on Sundays. i Table of Contents Introduction – Setting the Stage: Illustration and the Visual Imagination in 19th Century Japan………………………………………………......… 1 Chapter 1 – (Re)Discovering the Joys of Illustrated Fiction: Tsubouchi Shōyō and the Visual Heritage of Japanese Literature …….……………...…... 25 Chapter 2 – As Though Before Your Very Eyes: Seeing Clearly in the Fiction of Ozaki Kōyō………………………………………………….. 61 Chapter 3 – Venerating Images: Izumi Kyōka’s Passion for Picture-Books ……………....…. 107 Chapter 4 – Guide Markers to the Invisible: Izumi Kyōka and the Illustrated Newspaper Novel……………......…………………………. 131 Chapter 5 – Nightmares on the Urban Stage: Izumi Kyōka’s Tales of the Pleasure Quarters…………………….…………………………. 166 Chapter 6 – Dreaming in the Alleyway: Urban Perspective in the Work of Izumi Kyōka and Komura Settai…………………………...………. 200 Conclusion – Scraps………………………………………………………………...…………. 231 Bibliography …………………………………………………………………………………. 235 ii Acknowledgements First, I wish to thank my dissertation committee, whose guidance was fundamental to the planning and completion of this work. Thank you to Professor Daniel O’Neill, my dissertation chair, who introduced me to the materials that served as the spark for my research project, and who constantly encouraged me to think creatively, deepen my stakes in my writing, and bolster the structure and aim of my arguments. The direction you provided throughout the writing process has been invaluable. Thank you to Professor Alan Tansman, who constantly pushed me to be a better researcher and writer and who supported my development throughout graduate school. Thank you for all of the meticulously edited drafts of research papers over the years, and for caring seriously about your students’ growth as scholars. Thank you to Professor Beate Fricke, who acted as my advisor on all matters Art History-related, and who made this project possible on its most basic level. Without your guidance during the early stages of my research, I could never have even imagined the direction that this project would ultimately take. I wish also to thank Professors Mack Horton, Jonathan Zwicker, and Paula Varsano, all of whom provided guidance and assistance throughout my graduate studies. I wish to thank Professor Matsumura Tomomi of Keiō University, who provided access to the school’s library of first edition Kyōka books, as well as the author’s personal collection of kusazōshi. I wish to thank him also for his kindness, his warm introduction to the world of Kyōka studies in Japan, and the effort he continues to put into answering my questions today. On the same note, I wish to thank his students, Tominaga Maki and Suzuki Aya, who are producing fantastic work on the illustration and theatrical production of Kyōka’s fiction, and who continue to inspire me with their creativity. I wish also to thank Professors Yoshida Masashi, Tanaka Reigi, Suzuki Keiko, and Hinode Yumi, who invited me into the close-knit circle of Kyōka studies in Japan, and who helped me answer numerous questions along the way. I wish to acknowledge the invaluable assistance of the librarians at the C.V. Starr East Asian Library at UC, Berkeley, and particularly Toshie Marra, who helped me to acquire copies of rare materials, who assisted me with readings of kuzushiji, and who helped me to track down obscure references. I also wish to thank Deborah Rudolph, who provided access to the library’s rare books collection many times over the years, thereby making this project possible. I wish to thank the Fulbright Program, who generously funded my year of research in Japan, which proved invaluable for the planning and development of my dissertation project. Thanks to Fulbright, I was able to gain a deeper understanding of Japanese geography, history, culture, and religion, all of which have deeply influenced my research and writing. In Japan, I was able to access archives throughout Tokyo and to personally experience many of the landscapes and cultural formations that have given structure to my project. I wish also to acknowledge the tremendous support from UC, Berkeley, the Berkeley Graduate Division, the Center for Japanese Studies, and the department of East Asian Languages and Cultures over the years, which has allowed me to continue studying, researching, and writing, all while raising a family. In connection with these institutions, I wish to thank Jan Johnson, Kumi Hadler, and Tessa Machida, and everyone else who provided support and assistance. Finally, I wish to thank my spouse and child for their endless patience and constant love and support during the dissertation writing process. It is with heartfelt gratitude that I thank everyone who made this project a possibility. iii Introduction Setting the Stage: Illustration and the Visual Imagination in 19th Century Japan Eyes of the Heart In his literary treatise Essence of the Novel (Shōsetsu shinzui, 1885),1 Tsubouchi Shōyō (1859-1935) argues that the modern writer must learn how to project stories directly into the “eyes of the heart” (kokoro no manako) of the reader by the use of language alone.2 During the Edo period (1603-1868), books had been almost universally illustrated with woodblock-printed images, which, especially towards the 19th century, oftentimes appeared together with text on every page of a publication.