Chinese element in it, which is so prominent at the present time.
The Local Self Government (Sudō affects English titles) is a work of a similar character.
Yamada Taketarō, a contemporary of Tsuboüchi's, is the principal champion of an attempt to substitute the modern colloquial grammar for the grammatical forms and rules of the traditional literary dialect. He has produced a number of novels and stories written on this principle, which, if universally adopted, would save the Japanese nation the trouble of mastering a second grammar for purposes of reading and writing, in addition to that of their ordinary speech. His Natsu Kodachi ("Summer Trees") is a series of short stories which bear numerous traces of the author's studies of European literature. One is a Japanese version of the story of Appius and Virginia, and another a pastoral idyll obviously suggested by a European model. Yamada's later writings I have not seen. Dr. Florenz describes them as "cleverly written, the characters well and naturally drawn." This is high praise to give a Japanese novelist.
Yenchō, a blind story-teller of Tokio, also composes in the colloquial style. Indeed his novels are first delivered in a spoken form, and are taken down in writing by his pupils. Their language is simple and easy, and they may be recommended to any European who is beginning the study of Japanese. Some of his plots are said to be taken from the French.
One of the most popular and voluminous novelists of the present day is Ozaki Tokutarō (Kōyōsan). In his earlier works, which I have not seen, he made great use of the pivot style, but his Tajō-takon (1897) is
