V
THE POETS OF PRESENT JAPAN
I
The conservatism of Japanese "poetry" often proved to be a cowardice with little claim to wisdom; the poets (here I mean chiefly the thirty-one-syllable Uta writers) had been taught it was a dignity to rigidly observe the ancient form and spirit. Though I admit that changes are not always a triumph, and that modernity is not an emancipation altogether, their loyalty was more or less a literary superstition. They had to appear at least under a self-denying guise. Uniformity was their special virtue, individuality was regarded by them to be little short of vulgarity. Their poems turned to be the expression of an etiquette whose formality took the place of life and beauty; no sudden change was permitted in their old kingdom. And any conscious introduction of foreign elements, any advance in diction, imagery, or motive, was not readily recognised. The limitation which originated as a test of strength now degenerated to a confession of weakness. There was a time
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