Tanehiko's principal work, the Inaka Genji, "A Rusic Genji" (in ninety volumes), is an imitation of the Genji Monogatari, the well-known romance of the Heian period. It was a great success, and other authors, by choosing titles which included the word Genji, endeavoured to persuade the public that their works were of a similar character. In 1842 the Shōgun's Government took measures to suppress publications of an immoral tendency. The Inaka Genji was considered objectionable on this score, and Tanehiko received a private intimation that he had better give up writing novels. He was only too glad to escape so cheaply, as any official condemnation would have entailed the loss of his allowance from the Government.
I have not had access to this work. It is much admired by native critics for its style and sentiment; and the illustrations, to which Tanehiko attached great importance, set an example to which was due a marked improvement in Japanese wood-engraving.
Tanehiko's shōhonjidate or dramatic stories differ chiefly from ordinary Japanese novels by the preponderance of dialogue over narrative, and by the choice of the ordinary spoken language for the speeches of the characters. They are also more realistic, and vary less violently from actual living manners, than the romantic novel.
The great defect of his books is their want of human interest. Like Kiōden, Bakin, and the other novelists of the romantic school, Tanehiko accepts implicitly the conventional standards of honour and morality, and deviates little from the types of character which were the common property of the writers of his day. Indeed he carries unreal sentiment and artificial rules of conduct
