Tayama Katai and His Novel Entitled Futon/Chapter 3

by Motoko Reece

Chapter III

Katai's Motive for Writing Futon

Katai reminisces about his motive for writing Futon in his memoirs:

In every respect, it must have been Hauptmann's Sabishiki Hitobito [Einsame Menschen] which suggested to me most of the ideas for writing Futon. Needless to say, if my own Anna Mahr had not shown up in my actual life, Futon would not have been written even though I already had that idea.^[1]

From this statement it seems that when writing Futon two conditions were necessary for Katai. First, it was necessary to have Hauptmann's Einsame Menschen as his reference. Second, it was advantageous for Katai to have met Michiyo who became Katai's counterpart to Anna Mahr in Hauptmann's Einsame Menschen. Therefore we should trace how and when these conditions came together in Katai's thoughts.

Hauptmann's Einsame Menschen was published in 1891. Katai says it was about 1899 or 1900 that he first heard the name of Hauptmann mentioned among the literati.^[2] However, the actual date when Katai read Einsame Menschen is not known. Yet as far as can be ascertained, there is evidence that Katai had a copy of Einsame Menschen which he loaned to his friend Tōson as mentioned in a letter from Tōson to Katai dated October 26, 1901.^[3] In this letter it is clear that Tōson is commenting on Hauptmann's Einsame Menschen by his use of the names of the characters and their relationships in the play. It is not known whether Katai read an English or German version of the drama. An examination of Katai's biography shows that he started to learn German in 1893;^[4] however, in Tōson's biography we have no evidence that he could read German. On the other hand there is evidence that Tōson was well qualified to read English. It is known that Tōson taught English at Meiji Girls' School after graduating from Meiji Gakuin, a missionary school in Tokyo.^[5] Judging from Tōson's language background, it can be surmised that if Katai knew Tōson could not read German, he would not have lent him a German version of Einsame Menschen. Therefore it is logical to assume that it must have been a copy of the English version of Einsame Menschen that Katai lent Tōson. Additional evidence which further strengthens this assumption is the fact that Johannes Vockerat's wife was referred to as "Kitty" in the above cited Tōson's letter to Katai. It can be further noted that the name "Kitty" was used extensively in Mary Morrison's English translation of Einsame Menschen, while in the German version her name appears as "Käthe."^[6]

From the above explorations, it can be established that Katai could have read Einsame Menschen before October 1901, and that being the case he must have read an English version.

Katai's Onna-Kyōshi, or The Woman Teacher, written in 1903 closely follows the same theme as that of Einsame Menschen, but his attempt fails. A critique appearing in Teikoku Bungaku, or Imperial Literature, severely criticized Katai's superficial description and his lack of analyses of the characters' emotions which created conflicts in the development of his story.^[7] Taking into account this critique I surmise that the superficial description and inadequate character analysis was due to Katai's lack of imaginative power in creating characters endowed with vivid individual personalities and also to his inability to detail their motivations as required in plausible fiction.

While Katai failed in his characterization in Onna-Kyōshi, he appeared to be able to remedy these shortcomings in Futon by actual experiences with Michiyo Okada, as he reminisces in his memoirs: "Needless to say, if my own Anna Mahr had not shown up in my actual life, Futon would not have been written even though I already had that idea."^[8] Let us examine if what Katai states in the above quotation can be borne out.

Michiyo, a graduate of Kobe Women's College, was living with her parents in a small village in Hiroshima Prefecture.^[9] Her parents were well-to-do. Her father, Okada Hanjurō, was one of the founders of a local bank. Her only brother Sanemaro, after graduating from Dōshisha, went abroad to complete his studies at Harvard. On his return he became a professor at Daiichi Kōtōgakkō.

In the fall of 1903 Michiyo, feeling the desire to become a writer, contacted Katai with a heart-rending letter asking him to be allowed to study under his tutelage. Katai did not reply; however, this did not deter Michiyo who again wrote at great length explaining her desires. Katai, on his part, replied in a manner that he hoped would dissuade her from following out her plans to become a writer. The receipt of this discouraging letter in no way dampened Michiyo's spirits and she once more wrote laying out her plans and imploring his help. By now Katai could see that Michiyo's letters were well written and had a winning flair; he then agreed to her appeals and advised her that he would accept her as his pupil. Michiyo, accompanied by her father, came to Tokyo in February 1904 and was permitted to live in Katai's home.^[10] Such was the way Michiyo came into Katai's life.

Katai's lonely life appeared to be brightened by the presence of Michiyo; however, this situation lasted only a little over a month as Katai left to join the Second Regiment of the Army in the Russo–Japanese War in March 1904.^[11] It is recorded that on August 15, 1904, Katai was hospitalized in Manchuria, with the suspicion of having contacted typhoid, and a month later he was shipped back to Tokyo.^[12] Michiyo stayed with Katai's sister-in-law, while Katai was in Manchuria, and attended Tsuda Woman's College. In the meantime Michiyo fell in love with Nagashiro Shizuo, a student at Dōshisha.^[13] She planned to live with Nagashiro; however, her plans came to naught when her father abruptly took her home. The noticeable influences of Michiyo on Katai's life that were later incorporated in his heroine, Yoshiko, were now terminated as far as they relate to Futon.

From the foregoing observations it can be readily seen that Katai already had a model for his heroine when he was writing Futon. This model can be identified as Michiyo Okada, whose personal background was closely related to the story of the heroine Yoshiko in Futon. However, an analysis of how much Michiyo's presence in Katai's life actually influenced his use of her as the model for his heroine in Futon cannot be conclusive as there are no substantiating documents to confirm or refute this aspect of study.

After returning home Michiyo sent two short stories--Ippon Enoki, or A Lone Hackberry, in June 1907 and in July Itoko, or Cousins--to a competition in the literary magazine Bunshō Sekai which Katai was editing. Both stories were selected by the magazine with Katai's compliments in his acceptance letters to Michiyo.

About this time Katai appeared ready to commence writing Futon; however, he wavered in his decision whether or not to write this novel.^[14] One of his desires was to retain the respect of Michiyo by not revealing his love for her in his story, and another choice was to fulfill his literary ambition by writing Futon. He took the middle road of these two options when he wrote Shōjo Byō in May 1907. In this story Katai exposes candidly his hero's pining for a young and beautiful woman. The hero of Shōjo Byō is modeled after himself, although the story is written in the third person. It is interesting to note that in this story we can observe his naturalistic attitude of "straightforward description" of his real experiences, except that in this case the hero dies at the end of the story.

The publication of Shōjo Byō was not well received by his contemporaries and did not produce the expected encouragement for Katai. To make the situation more untenable for him, two of his friends, Tōson and Doppo, were already recognized as the writers of Hakai, or The Breaking of the Commandment, and Doppo Shū, or Doppo's Anthology. Unfortunately Katai had not, up to this time, written anything of literary value similar to that of these two close friends; therefore, Katai felt he was "left all alone."^[15]

It was during this distressing mental state that Katai was asked to write a novel for a literary magazine, Shin Shōsetsu. Katai thought that he must write something that would be recognized in literary circles. This thought constantly occupied his mind even while he was walking on the road, but his intentions did not produce any worthwhile writing. He was disappointed and very irritated, but at last a decision was reached as stated in Katai's essay "My Anna Mahr":

It was about that time that I was deeply stirred by Gerhart Hauptmann's Einsame Menschen. The loneliness of Vockerat seemed to resemble my own state of mind. Besides, both with regard to my family and with regard to my work, I had to break the existing patterns and open up new roads. Fortunately I had acquired the new foreign trends of thought--especially those of Europe--distorted though they may have been, from my voluminous reading. I had the feeling that the shape of fin de siecle suffering was clearly revealed even in the thoughts of Tolstoy, Ibsen, Strindberg, and Nietzsche. I, too, wanted to walk a hard road. I determined to fight courageously not only with society but also with myself. I thought I would like to bring out into the open things which I had kept hidden, things I had covered over, even things which might destroy my own soul were I to disclose them.

I determined to put into writing my own "Anna Mahr" who had been causing me anguish since two or three years earlier--the spring before the Russo–Japanese War began.^[16]

Based on the foregoing statements of Katai, it can now be seen that Katai's motive for writing Futon was to fulfill his literary aspiration to write something of value that would advance his stature to that of those acknowledged writers such as Tōson and Doppo. In addition to this factor, Katai felt that the time was now ripe "to break the existing patterns and open up new roads" in Japanese literature, which he had advocated doing since 1901 in his essay No no Hana, which was inspired by the works of European naturalists. Finally he clearly sees what, in his opinion, is to be desired from a writer.

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1. Tayama Katai, Yaza ("Seated All Night Without Sleep") (Tokyo: 1925), quoted in Wada, op. cit., p. 159.
2. Tayama Katai, Chōhen Shōsetsu no Kenkyū ("Study of Novels") (Tokyo: 1925), quoted in Wada, op. cit., p. 160. (See additional information, footnote 1, p. 9.)
3. Shimazaki Tōson, Shimazaki Tōson Zenshū, (19 vols.; Tokyo: Shinchōsha, 1951), XIX, 49–50.
4. This information was furnished by Senuma Shigeki in Katai's chronological personal history listed in Nihon Gendai Bungaku Zenshū (Tokyo: Kōdansha, 1962), XXI, 469.
5. Shimazaki Tōson, Shimazaki Tōson Zenshū, op. cit., XIX, 6–7.
6. Käthe is pronounced like /Keite/ in Japanese. As to the probability of Katai's reading a Japanese translation of Einsame Menschen, this is out of the question as the first Japanese translation by Mori Ōgai was published from February 16 to April 25, 1911, in the newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun and by this time Futon had been available for nearly four years.
7. Yoshida Seiichi, Shizenshugi no Kenkyū (2 vols.; Tokyo: Tokyodō, 1964), I, 320.
8. Tayama Katai, Yaza, quoted in Wada, op. cit., p. 159.
9. In Futon, Yoshiko's home town is in Okayama Prefecture.
10. This information was furnished by Senuma Shigeki in Katai's chronological personal history listed in Tayama Katai Shū, Vol. XXI of Nihon Gendai Bungaku Zenshū (Tokyo: Kōdansha, 1962), p. 471.
11. According to the provisions of law of the Meiji Constitution Japanese subjects between the ages of 17 and 45 are eligible to serve in the Army or Navy. In March 1904, Katai, who was 32 years old, was attached to the Army as a journalist.
12. This information was furnished by Senuma Shigeki in Katai's chronological personal history, op. cit., p. 471.
13. In Futon, Nagashiro Shizuo's part is taken by Tanaka Hideo.
14. Tayama Katai, "My Anna Mahr," in Tokyo no Sanjūnen, op. cit., pp. 347–48.
15. Ibid.
16. Tayama Katai, "My Anna Mahr," op. cit., p. 347.