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Transformations in Print: The Re-creation, Reception, and Representation of Edo-period Fiction in Turn-of-the-Century Japan by Brian C. Dowdle A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Asian Languages and Cultures) in The University of Michigan 2012 Doctoral Committee: Associate Professor Jonathan E. Zwicker, Chair Professor Ken K. Ito Professor Leslie Pincus Associate Professor David Rolston © Brian C. Dowdle 2012 DEDICATION To Becky, Josh, and Seth; and in loving memory of Terri, Carolyn, and Don. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This dissertation, like any project, has benefited from the help, guidance, and kindness of many. I am deeply grateful to those institutions, teachers, friends, and family members who have helped me along this journey. This work would not have been possible without the generous financial support of the Japan Foundation N.Y., The Center for Japanese Studies at the University of Michigan, and the Rackham Graduate School at the University of Michigan. I owe a special debt of gratitude to Kōno Kensuke and Satō Yukiko who welcomed me into the Department of Japanese Language and Literature at Nihon University and provided much needed direction and encouragement. I would also like to acknowledge the invaluable help of my dissertation committee members Leslie Pincus, Ken Ito, David Rolston, and Jonathan Zwicker who provided insight, direction, and support during the writing of this dissertation. I would like to extend my gratitude to fellow graduate students with whom I have worked especially Molly Des Jarden, Spencer Scoville, Andrea Landis, Kevin Mulholland, Kendra Strand, Kendall Heitzman, Nikki Floyd, and Joe Leach. My most profound debt of gratitude goes to Becky, Joshua, and Seth who give meaning to my life. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION .............................................................................................................................. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ........................................................................................................... iii LIST OF FIGURES ..................................................................................................................... vi Chapter I: Introduction ......................................................................................................... 1 Literary History Through Reprints ............................................................................................. 11 Chapter II: The Mid-Meiji “Forest of Words” ................................................................ 19 Copyright and the Right to Copy .................................................................................................. 38 Publishers of Reprints ..................................................................................................................... 50 Economies of Genre Reprinting .................................................................................................... 61 Return to the “Forest of Words” ................................................................................................... 68 Chapter III: Why Saikaku was Memorable, But Bakin was Unforgettable ......... 71 An Odd Fellow .................................................................................................................................. 77 A Cause of Their Own ..................................................................................................................... 83 Bakin’s Shadow ................................................................................................................................. 87 The Complex Ecology of the Meiji-period Literary Field ....................................................... 90 The Bakin Problem .......................................................................................................................... 98 Writer of Our Discontent ............................................................................................................. 100 A Forgotten Literary Inversion .................................................................................................. 108 Chapter IV: Mori Ōgai’s Bookshelf ................................................................................ 113 Ōgai’s Bookshelf ............................................................................................................................ 119 Genealogies of Fragmentation .................................................................................................... 129 Prefaces Unto Themselves ........................................................................................................... 137 Essences of Novels .......................................................................................................................... 149 Reading Materialities .................................................................................................................... 156 Chapter V: Judging Books By Their Covers ................................................................ 158 Edo-Period Material Consciousness of Books ......................................................................... 167 Reading Books within Books ....................................................................................................... 175 An Overused Trope ....................................................................................................................... 181 Western Books and the Disruption of Nineteenth-Century Material Consciousness ..... 186 Objects of Distress and Desire .................................................................................................... 194 The Light and Darkness of Western Books ............................................................................. 197 Pictures of Sōseki as a Modern Meiji Man .............................................................................. 201 Chapter VI: Coda ................................................................................................................. 212 Kafū the Scavenger ....................................................................................................................... 212 An Epidemiology of Literature ................................................................................................... 215 Kafū the Book Buyer .................................................................................................................... 218 iv Scales of Destruction ..................................................................................................................... 222 Bibliography ........................................................................................................................ 229 v LIST OF FIGURES Figure I-1 Sociology of Texts ............................................................................................... 8 Figure II-1 Number of Literary Titles by Year in Kindai Digital Library ............ 35 Figure II-2 Book Reprints by Decade according to Kindai Digital Library ........ 36 Figure II-3 Tsuruya in Edo meisho zu-e .......................................................................... 39 Figure II-4 Announcement in Newspaper on Need to Renew Copyrights .......... 46 Figure II-5 Colophon Claiming Copyright on Behalf of Atsumi Seikan for Bakin’s Jinjutsu kiyo manroku ........................................................................................... 49 Figure IV-1 Ōgai's Table of Contents for Beibei kyōdan ......................................... 122 Figure IV-2 Ōgai's Table of Contents for Beibei kyōdan Continued ................... 123 Figure IV-3 Bakin's Table of Contents to Beibei kyōdan ........................................ 125 Figure IV-4 Written (+) and Visual (-) Spectrum for Reprints of Eight Dogs .. 132 Figure IV-5 Shimamura Yoshimatsu’s Picture Book of Eight Dogs ..................... 135 Figure IV-6 Utsuho monogatari ..................................................................................... 140 Figure IV-7 Egawatei's Kyokutei daibatsu .................................................................. 142 Figure IV-8 Watanabe Hakuō's Kyokutei Bakin gesaku jobunshū ...................... 145 Figure IV-9 Preface to Bakin's Ume sakura no ototoi ............................................. 146 Figure V-1 Maruzen Advertisement, June 6, 1915 .................................................. 162 Figure V-2 Advertisement for Limited Edition of Eight Dogs .............................. 179 Figure V-3 Sōseki's Study in 1917 ................................................................................. 183 Figure V-4 Bunzō in his Room from Futabatei Shimei's Ukigumo ..................... 203 Figure V-5 Sōseki in his Study in 1907 ........................................................................ 205 Figure V-6 Sōseki at Mochizuki Photography Studio 1910 .................................. 206 vi Chapter I: Introduction This is a dissertation about the material production and circulation of books in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Japan and their relationship to literary developments during this time. I came to be concerned with this topic through a series of interactions with books as objects. Like many students of Japanese literature at universities in North America, my first encounter with texts was through English translations. I read these and felt inspired to learn Japanese well enough to be able to read