The Youth of Things

Abstract

When Kajii Motojirō died from tuberculosis at the age of thirty-one, he had written only twenty short stories. Yet his life and work, it is argued here, sheds light on a significant moment in Japanese history and, ultimately, adds to our understanding of how modern Japanese identity developed. By the time Kajii began to write there was heated debate among his peers over “legitimate” forms of literary expression. There was a general sense that Japan needed to reinvent itself, but writers and artists were at odds over what form this reinvention should take. This book brings together English translations of nearly all of Kajii Motojirō's completed stories with an analysis of his literature. In particular, it links the writer's work with the physical body. His concerns with health and mortality drove him to play a central role in constructing a language for modern literature. In addition, Kajii's early years as a writer were influenced by the humanism of the White Birch (Shirakaba) school, but by the time his final work was published, an environment of greater cultural introspection was beginning to take root. Only a few years separate these two moments in time, but they represent a profound shift in the aspirations and expectations of a whole generation of writers. Through a study of Kajii's writing, this book offers some sense of the demise of one cultural moment and the creation of another.