[ Preface to Shōsetsu Shinzui, 1885] by Tsubouchi Shōyō ( 1859- 1935)

The Essence of the Novel was a work which exercised great influ-
ence during the early Meiji period. Tsubouchi defined in it the
methods and purposes of the novel (as opposed to the tale or the
romance) largely in terms of European, particularly English, exam-
ples. The preface, given here, is probably the most interesting part
of the work for Western readers; the rest of the book tends to be a
reiteration of ideas familiar to us from Victorian works of literary
criticism.

What a glorious tradition the novel can boast in Japan! We have
from ancient times such works as The Tale of Genji, and in more
recent centuries Saikaku and other novelists have won considerable
fame with their writings. The novel has enjoyed an ever increasing
popularity, and writers have eagerly turned out historical romances,
humorous tales, or love stories, as their particular talents dictated.
However, as the result of the upheavals which accompanied the
Meiji Restoration, for a time the popular writers ceased their activ-
ity, and the novel itself consequently lost ground. It has only been
recently that a revival has occurred. The time indeed seems propi-
tious for the production of novels. Everywhere historical romances
and tales are being published, one more unusual than the next. It
has reached such a point that even newspapers and magazines are
printing reworkings of the hackneyed old novels, and thanks to this
trend, the number of novels being produced is now beyond all reck-
oning. There is a simply staggering production of books, all of them
extremely bad.

This holy reign of Meiji may well be said to have witnessed an

-55-