Shintaishishō [1] or "Poetry of New Form" (1882), marks an epoch in the history of poetry in Japan. It is a bold attempt to revolutionise the art. The writers ignore the Tanka altogether, and set an example of a kind of Nagauta adapted to modern conditions. The old principle of the alternation of phrases of five and seven syllables is retained, the seven-syllable phrases, however, being usually put first. A decided improvement is the division into verses or stanzas of equal length. But it is chiefly in the language employed that the new style is distinguished from the old. Toyama and his colleagues, finding the ancient classical language unequal to the expression of the new ideas, and largely unintelligible to a modern public, frankly adopted the ordinary written language of the day, which had hitherto been only used for popular poetry of the humblest pretensions. In their choice of themes, in the length of their poems, and in the general tone of thought, the influence of European models is plainly traceable.
Some experiments in rhymed verse by poets of the new school confirm the opinion already expressed of the unsuitableness of the Japanese language for this form of poetical ornament.
The Shintaishishō contains nineteen poems of no great length. Of these only five are original, the remainder being translations from English poets. Bloomfield is represented by "The Soldier's Return," Campbell by "The Mariners of England," and Tennyson by "The Charge of the Light Brigade," of which two versions are given. The same compliment is paid to Gray's
- ↑ Dr. Florenz, Professor of Philology in the Imperial University of Tokio, has given an interesting account of this movement in a paper contributed to the German Asiatic Society of Tokio, March 1892.
