Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T04:46:21.811Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Metaphysics of Translation and the Origins of Symbolist Poetics in Meiji Japan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 October 2020

Earl Jackson Jr
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Japanese modernity is often equated with Westernization, and the cross-cultural link is restricted to the Western influence on Japan. The translations of Western philosophy and poetry in the Meiji period (1868-1912), however, relate to native symbolist poetics, in a way that has earlier parallels: Japan's alchemical cultural interaction with China in the transformative cultivation of Zen in the medieval period and its complex responses to Neo-Confucianism in the Tokugawa period (1603-1868). The consistent metatextual dynamics suggested by these parallels cannot be adequately described through influencebased comparative methods. This essay defines Japanese modernism as a creative conflict stimulated by the introduction of transcendence-based texts into fundamentally immanence-grounded aesthetic, epistemological, and semiotic systems.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 105 , Issue 2 , March 1990 , pp. 256 - 272
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1990

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Works Cited

Masao, Abe. “Dōgen on Buddha Nature.” Eastern Buddhist 4.1 (1971): 28–71.Google Scholar
Yoshiteru, Asō. Kinsei Nihon Tetsugaku Shi [History of Modern Japanese Philosophy]. Tokyo: Kondo, 1943.Google Scholar
Burckhardt, Sigurd. The Drama of Language: Essays on Goethe and Kleist. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1970.Google Scholar
Chan, Wing-Tsit. Chu Hsi: Life and Thought. New York: St. Martin's, 1987.Google Scholar
Derrida, Jacques. Of Grammatology. Trans. Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1976.Google Scholar
Derrida, Jacques. Positions. Trans. Bass, Alan. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1981.Google Scholar
Ďurišin, Dionýz. Vergleichende Literaturforschung. Berlin: Akademie, 1976.Google Scholar
Sei'ichi, Funayama. Iwano Hōmei Den [The Life of Iwano Hōmei]. 2 vols. Tokyo: Aoki, 1938.Google Scholar
Shin'ichi, Funayama. Meiji Tetsugaku Shi Kenkyū [Research in the History of Meiji Philosophy]. Tokyo: Minerva, 1950.Google Scholar
Yu-lan, Fung. A History of Chinese Philosophy. Trans. Bodde, Derk. 2 vols. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1953.Google Scholar
Glasenapp, Helmuth von. Das Indeienbeild destscher Denker. Stuttgart: Koehler, 1960.Google Scholar
Gonda, Jan. Four Studies in the Language of the Vedas. 's Gravenhage: Mouton, 1959.Google Scholar
Habein, Yaeko Satō. The History of the Japanese Written Language. Tokyo: U of Tokyo P, 1984.Google Scholar
Mineo, Hashimoto, ed. Kiyozawa Manshi, Suzuki Daisetsu. Nihon no Meisho [Renowned Texts of Japan] 43. Tokyo: Chūō Kōron, 1970.Google Scholar
Havens, Thomas R.H.Nishi Amane and Modern Japanese Thought. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1970.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hecker, Max R.Schopenhauer und die indische Philosophie. Leipzig: Hübscher, 1987.Google Scholar
Herbert, Jean. Shinto: At the Fountainhead of Japan. New York: Stein, 1967.Google Scholar
Tatsuo, Hino. “Bungakushijō no Soraigaku: Han Soraigaku” [Soraigaku in Terms of Literary History: Against Soraigaku]. Sorai Gakuha [The Sorai School]. Nihon Shisō Taikei [Compendium of Japanese Thought] 37. Ed. Rai Tsutomu. Tokyo: Iwanami, 1975. 577–89.Google Scholar
Hoffmeister, Johannes, ed. Wörterbuch derphilosophischen Begriffe. Leipzig: Meine, 1944.Google Scholar
Holtom, Donald C.Shinto: The National Faith of Japan. 1938. New York: Paragon, 1965.Google Scholar
Tetsujirō, Inoue. “Genshō sokuk jitzuzairon no Yōryo” [Outline of Philosophy Journal Identitätsrealismus]. Tetsugaku Zasshi 13 (1897): 178–81.Google Scholar
Tetsujirō, Inoue. “Kyōiku to Shūkyō no Shototsu” [The Conflict between Education and Religion]. Meiji Tetsugaku Shisō Shū [Anthology of Meiji Philosophical Thought]. Tokyo: Chikuma, 1974.Google Scholar
Tetsujirō, Inoue. “Wa ga Sekaikan no Ichijin” [A Grain of My World-view]. Tetsugaku Zasshi [Philosophy Journal] 9 (1894): 495–506.Google Scholar
Tetsujirō, Inoue. “Yo to Meiji Bungaku oyobi Bungakusha” [Meiji Literature and Literati and Myself]. Kokugo to Kokubungaku [Japanese Language and Literature] 11.8 (1934): 43–51.Google Scholar
Tetsujirō, Inoue. Zen to Bunka [Zen and Culture]. Tokyo: Shunyōdō, 1938.Google Scholar
Yasushi, Ishikawa. Shushigaku Nyūmon. Shushigaku Taikei [Introduction to Chu Hsi. Compendium of Chu Hsi]. Tokyo: Meitoku, 1974.Google Scholar
Teruji, Ishizu. Tendai Jissō Ron Kenkyū [Research on the Tendai Theory of Reality]. Tokyo: Sōbunsha, 1947.Google Scholar
Hōmei, Iwano. “Nihon Kodai Shisō yori Kindai no Hyōshōshugi o Ronzu” [Observations on Modern Symbolism from the Perspective of Ancient Japanese Thought]. Waseda Bungaku (Apr. 1907): 73–82.Google Scholar
Hōmei, Iwano. “Shizenshugiteki Hyōshōshi Ron” [Theory of a Naturalist Symbolist Poetry]. Kindai Shikaron Shū [Essays on Modern Poetics]. Ed. Kakuta Toshirō et al. Vol. 59 of Nihon Kindai. 1973. 91–103.Google Scholar
Jackson, Earl Jr. “The Heresy of Meaning: Japanese Symbolist Poetry.” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies. Forthcoming.Google Scholar
Jones, Sumie. “Language in Crisis: Ōgyu Sorai's Philological Thought and Hiraga Gennai's Creative Practice.” Principles of Classical Japanese Literature. Ed. Miner, Earl. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1985. 209–56.Google Scholar
Ariake, Kambara. “Shunchōshū Jo” [Preface to the Spring Bird Anthology]. 1906. Rpt. in Hiunshō [Flying Cloud Anthology]. Tokyo: Shōbundō, 1938.Google Scholar
Ariake, Kambara. Yūmeishu [The Ariake Collection]. Tsuchii Bansui. Susukida Kyūkin. Kambara Ariake Shu. Vol. 18 of Nihon Kindai. 1972.Google Scholar
Shunsuke, Kamei. “Ttan' Shijin Iwano Hōmei” [“Perverse” Poet Iwano Hōmei]. Nihon Bungaku ni Okeru Kindai [Modernism in Japanese Literature]. Ed. Yoshiga Tetsu et al. Tokyo: Daigaku, 1973. 143–90.Google Scholar
Tsuyoshi, Kimura. “Nihon Honyaku Shi Gaikan” [Outline of the History of Japanese Translation]. Meiji Bungaku Zensha 7: 374–79.Google Scholar
Kitagawa, Joseph M.Religion in Japanese History. New York: Columbia UP, 1966.Google Scholar
Hakushū, Kitahara. Kitahara Hakushū Shū. Ed. Kawamura Masatoshi. Vol. 28 of Nihon Kindai. 1970.Google Scholar
Kojiki. Norito [The Kojiki and Shinto Liturgies]. Ed. Kurano Kenji and Takeda Yukichi. Vol. 1 of Nihon Koten. 1958.Google Scholar
Kristeva, Julia. Desire in Language. Trans. Roudiez, Leon S. New York: Columbia UP, 1980.Google Scholar
de Lisle, Leconte. Œuvres de Leconte de Lisle. I: Poèmes antiques. Ed. Pich, Edgard. Paris: Société d'Edition, 1957.Google Scholar
Shu-hsien, Liu. “The Confucian Solution to the Problem of Immanence and Transcendence.” Philosophy East and West 22 (Jan. 1972): 45–52.Google Scholar
Lubac, Henri de. La rencontre du Bouddhisme et de l'Occident. Paris: Aubier, 1952.Google Scholar
Mâle, Emile. The Gothic Image: Religious Art in France of the Thirteenth Century. Trans. Nussey, Dora. New York: Harper, 1958.Google Scholar
Martino, Pierre. Parnasse et symbolisme: 1850–1900. Paris: Colin, 1954.Google Scholar
Masao, Maruyama. Studies in the Intellectual History of Japan. Trans. Hane, Mikiso. Princeton: Princeton UP; Tokyo: U of Tokyo P, 1974.Google Scholar
Shōkō, Maruyama, trans. Ekikyō [The Classic of Changes]. Tokyo: Tokkan, 1965. Vol. 7 of Chūgoku no Shisō [Chinese Thought]. 15 vols. 1963–67.Google Scholar
McCullough, Helen Craig, trans. TheKokin Wakashū. Stanford: Stanford UP, 1985.Google Scholar
Meiji Bungaku Zenshū [Complete Works of Meiji Literature]. Ed. Okitsu Kaname et al. 110 vols. Tokyo: Chikuma, 1965–89.Google Scholar
Meiji Honyaku Bungaku Shū [Collection of Literature Translations from Meiji]. Vol. 7 of Meiji Bungaku. 1972.Google Scholar
Meiji Keimō Shisō Shū [Thought of the Meiji Enlightenment]. Vol. 3 of Meiji Bengaku. 1967.Google Scholar
Meiji Taishō Yakushi Shū [Anthology of Poetry Translations in Meiji and Taisho]. Ed. Mori Ryō, Yasuda Yasuo, et al. Vol. 52 of Nihon Kindai. 1971.Google Scholar
Merkel, Rudolf F. “Anfänge der Erforschung indischer Religionen im 18. Jahrhundert.”Rudolf Otto Ehrung. Ed. Frick, Heinrich. Berlin: Töpelmann, 1940. 39–68.Google Scholar
Rofū, Miki. Zenshū [Complete Works]. Vol. 3. Tokyo: Miki Rofū Zenshū Hankō Kai, 1972. 3 vols.Google Scholar
Miller, Roy Andrew. The Japanese Language. Chicago: Chicago UP, 1967.Google Scholar
Kenji, Morioka. “Kaikaki Honyakusho no Goi” [The Vocabulary in Translated Texts in the Age of Enlightenment]. Kindai no Goi [Modern Vocabulary]. Ed. Satō Kiyoji. Tokyo: Meiji Shoin, 1982. Vol. 6 of Kōza Nihongo no Goi [Japanese Vocabulary]. 11 vols. 1978–84.Google Scholar
Kenji, Morioka. Kindaigo no Seiritsu: Meijiki Goi Hen [The Development of the Modern Language: Meiji Vocabulary]. Tokyo: Meiji Shoin, 1969.Google Scholar
MorohashiTetsuji. Dai Kan-Wa Jiten [Chinese-Japanese Dictionary]. 13 vols. Tokyo: Taishūkan, 1968–84.Google Scholar
Takeshi, Muramatsu. Bungaku to Shiseishin [Literature and the Poetic Spirit]. Tokyo: Nanbokusha, 1963.Google Scholar
Muraoka, Tsunetsugu. Studies in Shinto Thought. Trans. Brown, Delmer. Tokyo: UNESCO, 1964.Google Scholar
Hiroshi, Nagata. Nihon Yuibutsuron Shi [History of Japanese Materialism]. 1936. Tokyo: Hakuyōsha, 1949.Google Scholar
Susumu, Nakanishi. “Miru: Kodaiteki Chikaku” [To See: Ancient Perceptions]. Bungaku [Literature] 43 (1975): 479–89.Google Scholar
Nicholas, B.L. “Poetry and Pure Art: Gautier, Leconte de Lisle, and Heredia.” The Late Nineteenth Century. Ed. John Cruickshank. Oxford UP, 1969. Vol. 5 of French Literature and Its Background. Ed. John Cruickshank. 17–34.Google Scholar
Nihon Koten Bungaku Taikei [Compendium of Classical Japanese Literature]. Ed. Takagi Ichinosuke et al. 100 vols. Tokyo: Iwanami, 1958–68.Google Scholar
Nihon Kindai Bungaku Taikei [Compendium of Modern Japanese Literature]. 60 vols. Tokyo: Kadokawa, 1970–73.Google Scholar
Amane, Nishi. Fukubōshishō. 1870. Rpt. in Meiji Keimō Shisō. 24–27.Google Scholar
Yoshie, Okazaki. Nihon Shika no Shōchō Seishin: Gendai Hen [The Symbolist Spirit in Japanese Poetry: The Present]. Tokyo: Hōbunkan, 1959. Vol. 8 of Okazaki Yoshie Chosaku Shū [Collected Works]. 10 vols. 1959–62.Google Scholar
Kensei, Ōshima. Inoue Tetsujirō: Nihon no Shisōka [Inoue Tetsujirō: Japanese Thinker]. 2 vols. Tokyo: Asahi Shinbunsha, 1963.Google Scholar
Piovesana, Gino K.Recent Japanese Philosophical Thought: 1862–1962. Tokyo: Enderle, 1963.Google Scholar
Pollack, David. The Fracture of Meaning: Japan's Synthesis of China from the Eighth through the Eighteenth Century. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1986.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Putter, Irving. The Pessimism of Leconte de Lisle. University of California Publications in Modern Philology 43. Berkeley: U of California P, 1961.Google Scholar
Ramanan, K. Venkata. Nagārjuna's Philosophy. 1966. Rpt. New York: Weiser, 1975.Google Scholar
Rodd, Laura Rasplica, and Henkenius, Catherine, trans. The Kokinshū. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1984.Google Scholar
Mokichi, Saitō. Zenshū [Complete Works]. Vol. 9. Tokyo: Iwanami, 1973. 36 vols. 1972–75.Google Scholar
Tsuyoshi, Saitō. Meiji no Kotoba [Meiji Language]. Tokyo: Kōdasha, 1977.Google Scholar
Nobutsuna, Sasaki, ed. Nihon Kagaku Taikei [Compendium of Japanese Poetics]. Vol. 2. Tokyo: Kazema, 1968.Google Scholar
Schafer, Edward H.Pacing the Void: T'ang Approaches to the Stars. Berkeley: U of California P, 1977.Google Scholar
Schopenhauer, Arthur. “On the Antithesis of Thing in Itself and Appearance.” Essays and Aphorisms. Trans. Hollindale, R.J. New York: Penguin, 1970. 55–60.Google Scholar
Schopenhauer, Arthur. Sämtliche Werke. Ed. Arthur Hübscher. 7 vols. Wiesbaden: Brockhaus, 1946–50.Google Scholar
Kinji, Shimada. KindaiHikaku Bungaku [Modern Comparative Literature]. Tokyo: Kōbunsha, 1953.Google Scholar
Yasutaka, Shimizu. Kambara Ariake Ron [On Kambara Ariake]. Tokyo: Chūo Kōron, 1980.Google Scholar
Shinmura, Izuru, ed. Kōjien [Encyclopedic Dictionary]. 2nd rev. ed. Tokyo: Iwanami, 1978.Google Scholar
Soper, Alexander. “The Rise of Yamato-e.” Art Bulletin 24 (1942): 362–76.Google Scholar
Hiroko, Sugita. “Niiche Kaishaku no Shiryōteki Kenkyū: Inyū shoki ni okeru Nihon Bunken to Gaikoku Bunken no Kankei [Research on Materials for the Interpretation of Nietzsche: Relation of Japanese Texts and Foreign Texts in the First Period of Importation]. Kokugo to Kokubungaku 43 (May 1966): 21–34.Google Scholar
Shigeo, Suzuki. Yūken Tetsugaku [The Philosophy of the Manifest and Hidden]. Tokyo: Risōsha, 1940.Google Scholar
Kyōson, Tsuchida. Shōchō no Tetsugaku [Philosophy of the Symbol]. Tokyo: Shinsensha, 1971.Google Scholar
Eugène, Véron. L'esthétique. Paris: Reinwald, 1878.Google Scholar
Watanabe, Kazuyasu. Meiji Shisō Shi: Jukyōteki Dentō to Kindai Ninshikiron [History of Meiji Thought: Confucian Tradition and Modern Epistemology]. Tokyo: Perikan, 1978.Google Scholar
Wellek, René. The Later Nineteenth Century. New Haven: Yale UP, 1965. Vol. 4 of A History of Modern Criticism 1750–1950. 6 vols. 1955–67.Google Scholar
Wixted, John Timothy. “The Kokinshū Prefaces: Another Perspective.” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 43 (1983): 215–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yasuo, Yasuda. Ueda Bin Kenkyū [A Study of Ueda Bin]. Tokyo: Yūseidō, 1959.Google Scholar
Yoshida, Seiichi. “Kaisetsu” [Interpretation]. Meiji Taishō Yakushi Shū. Nihon Kindai 52: 8–15.Google Scholar