The puzzling perception of Japanese naturalism

Abstract

Japanese naturalism continues to be typically thought of as a failed attempt to produce a Japanese version of Zola's pseudo-scientific deterministic naturalism. Alleged causes for this failure have been retrospectively produced, such as a lack of scientific tradition in Japan and the shortcomings of Japanese naturalists who confused naturalism and romanticism. In fact, not only was Zola's type of naturalism merely one of a range of very differing and influential French naturalisms, including for example Huysmans’ ‘spiritual naturalism’, it was fundamentally and conceptually different from most of the many and varied types of naturalism which prevailed in Germany. German naturalism also contained elements of ‘romanticism’, such as assertion of the individual, subjectivity, defiance of convention, and a ‘back to Nature’ spirit. It even included Nietzsche. This complex, multi-faceted German naturalism was more influential than Zola was upon the (later) Japanese naturalists. This paper, focussing in particular on the leading naturalist writer Tayama Katai, provides clear evidence of the inappropriateness of overestimating the influence of Zola and underestimating that of German naturalism. It is puzzling that the negative view of Japanese naturalism as failed Zolaism still prevails, and the paper concludes by calling for a more positive reassessment.