An overview of children’s literature in the Taisho period

An overview of children's literature in the Taisho period

For children's literature in the middle Taisho period, "Red Bird" is recognized as a book that elevated the story-like fairy tales of the Meiji period to a literary one. Fairy tale magazine from the height of fairy tales.

Abstract:

After World War I, Taisho democracy and respect for children began to emerge in Japan. Against this background, the novel with "Red Bird" as its core Fairy tales and nursery rhymes prospered and reached their peak in development. During this period, Taisho children's literature advocated "childlike innocence" and resisted the feudal view of children and the outdated view of education. It left a strong mark in the history of Japanese children's literature and even the history of Japanese civilization. Pen. This article aims to let more readers understand this magnificent period in the history of Japanese children's literature by giving an overview of children's literature in the Taisho period.

Keywords:

Taisho period; children’s literature; overview

Japanese children’s literature scholar Guan Yingxiong divides Taisho children’s literature into three periods, namely emerging fairy tales The preparatory period (early Taisho period), the heyday of fairy tales and nursery rhymes (middle Taisho period), the decline of romanticism and the birth of fan magazines (late Taisho period). This article will use this classification method as a basis to outline the development of children's literature in the Taisho period.

1. The preparation period for emerging fairy tales

(Early Taisho period) The Taisho period refers to the period when Japan’s Taisho reigned from 1912 to 1926, but the children’s literature of the Taisho period is Beginning in 1910, the 28-year-old Ogawa Sueaki published his first fairy tale collection "The Red Boat", which ushered in the dawn of modern children's literature in Japan. Therefore, Sueaki is considered the first modern fairy tale creator. pioneer. The so-called "modern times" refers to the era from the 19th to the 20th century in developed Western European countries, with the development of capitalism, the idea of ??individual freedom in civil society was established, and literary and artistic works began to reflect this idea. "Modern" children's literature opposes the feudal view of children. Children in the feudal era were despised because they were in a subordinate position in society and family, so they existed only to be educated by their parents. However, modern children's literature respects children's individuality and pays attention to their inner spiritual life. Iwatani Wavelet created a genre that was popular with children. He believed that children should be recognized for their naughtiness and become their friends. Rongguang, as a pioneer, implemented Wavelet's idea. However, "children's stories" at that time had not yet been liberated from the nationalist morality of the Meiji period, nor had they broken away from the dogmatic children's literature that catered to the ideological trends of the semi-feudal era. The juvenile literature of the Meiji period (there was no such thing as "children's literature" in the Meiji period, so it was called "juvenile literature") was dominated by dogmatic stories created by playwrights, beautiful stories of loyal ministers and filial sons, and translated fairy tales. Until the Taisho period, In 1918, with the founding of "Red Bird", nursery rhymes and fairy tale literature that reflected the life emotions of children in the new civil society replaced juvenile literature and became the mainstream of children's literature. The first half of the Taisho period from around the Taisho era (1912) to the first publication of "Red Bird" was the budding period of this mainstream transition. During this period, "Red Boat" was published in the late Ming Dynasty. Because it created a new category of fairy tales in form, it is considered to be the dawn of modern children's literature, that is, Taisho children's literature. However, in terms of content, this work is sentimental. The main theme is still in the experimental stage of modern children's literature creation.

Regarding the reasons for the replacement of the mainstream of children's literature, scholar Guan Yingxiong has the following views: "After the Russo-Japanese War, with the development of Japanese capitalism, the modern citizen class and the consciousness of personal freedom finally emerged among the people. It is also maturely reflected in the world of children's literature. The end of the Meiji period was considered an era of closed-mindedness due to the verdict of Kotoku Shusui's "Great Rebellion Incident". However, in the second year of the Taisho period, the Japanese trade union movement group "Friends of Friendship Society" was born. In the third year of Taisho (1914), World War I broke out, the bourgeoisie gained huge wealth, Japan's economy developed rapidly, and workers began to awaken, finally ushering in the dawn of Taisho democracy and the socialist movement. The atmosphere of freedom among citizens and the growth of political consciousness among workers are only partial phenomena in cities and have not yet shaken the semi-feudal national system.

On the other hand, the existing Japanese imperialism still controls children to a large extent. Trends in literature.

At that time, the modern nursery rhyme and fairy tale movement (Children's Innocence Literary Movement) initiated by a group of literature lovers from the civil class under the influence of the Taisho period's liberal education ideas also declined prematurely because of imperialism. In addition, although the fairy tales of the time romantically eulogized the concept of mutual assistance brought about by humanitarianism and utopian socialism, the works revealed a pessimistic mood of not knowing where to go, which was keenly reflected in the works of the forerunner Sueaki Ogawa. This situation emerged in the Taisho era. "In addition to "Red Boat", Ogawa Sueaki's "To the Beautiful Sky" was included in one of the volumes of the World Girls' Literature Series. Later, in Taisho 5 (1916), he published the fairy tale "Black Flag" "Monogatari", this work is considered to be the pioneer work of socialist fairy tales. This year was also the peak period of the creation of fairy tales in the late Ming Dynasty.

The debut work of 25-year-old Hamada Kosuke in the 6th year of Taisho "Golden Rice". "Bunch" was selected by Osaka Asahi Shimbun and others for a call for fairy tales. By Taisho 5 or 6, a large number of fairy tales were published in Nikkan Shimbun women's magazines, and fairy tale literature finally showed a flourishing trend. The trend, in the words of Akio Yamauchi, is "like seeing a trend." At the same time, "Modern Women" edited by Kaminosuke Mizumori has contributions from Ogawa Sueaki and Yamauchi Akio, and "Women's World" has Maeda Akira. "The Owl in the Forest", and "The Yomiuri Shimbun" published Okino Iwasaburo's debut novel "Yoyoshi and Suzumaru". This was until the first issue of "Akatori" was ushered in in July of the 7th year of Taisho. /p>

2. The heyday of fairy tales and nursery rhymes

(Mid-Taisho period) The six years from Taisho 7 to 12 were the golden age in the history of Japanese children's literature. Following the publication of "Red Bird", "Oga World" (April, Taisho 8), "Golden Ship" (October, Taisho 8), and "Fairy Tale" (April, Taisho 9) were launched one after another. Although these magazines cannot compare in quantity to the boys and girls magazines since the Meiji era, However, their role can even be said to be the creation of a new era. These magazines, with "Akatori" as the pioneer, and the writers and their works based on them, showed the lives of citizen children in modern Japanese society in their literary works. Emotions and the tradition of fairy tales and nursery rhymes were born from this.

"Red Bird" is a fairy tale magazine that played a leading role in the establishment of modern children's literature. The magazine was founded by Suzuki Miejoshi in July 1918. It was founded by the leading Akatori Society and ceased publication in 1936, the year of Mieyoshi's death. For children's literature in the mid-Taisho period, "Akatori" is recognized as a book that elevated the story-like fairy tales of the Meiji period to a literary fairy tale. In the article "Children's View of Modern "Red Bird" and the Ideal of "Children's Heart"", Kawara Kazue commented on "Red Bird": ""Red Bird" is making the 'Oga Fairy Tale' become a 'fairy tale'. Played an important role in the transformation of ', Miejoshi rejected the 'Oga Fairy Tales' that had remnants of dramas such as Iwatani Xiaobo, as well as the popular novels for children and officially regulated singing that were rampant at that time. He advocated 'taking art as the true value' Fairy tales and nursery rhymes.

The front volume of "Red Bird" without exception contains six slogans summarized by them: "Most of the popular children's books today are just like their vulgar covers. , is extremely inferior on many levels. Such things violate the innocence of children, and we feel scared just thinking about this situation." "Unlike Westerners, we in Japan have never had anyone who can be called an artist who creates beautiful books for children. "It sounds very sad"; ""Red Bird" is the pioneer of an epoch-making movement in which we abandon secular and despicable children's books. In order to preserve and develop children's innocence, we welcome modern first-class artists and A creator who creates for young children"; "Red Bird is not only proud of the innocence and beauty of the subject matter, but in terms of the overall performance of the magazine, we are also committed to providing a model for children's articles"; "Look at the children nowadays Composition, both children and adults have been seriously harmed by the language expression of news in today's inferior newspapers and magazines.

The 'composition collection' selected by Suzuki Miejoshi in "Red Bird" teaches children, those responsible for their children's education, and all other citizens what real composition creation is."; "I agree with "Red Bird" Writers of the "Bird" movement include Kyoka Izumi, Kaoru Koyamauchi, Akio Tokuda, Kyoko Takahama, Toyoichiro Nogami, Yayoiko Nogami, Toyotaka Komiya, Ima Arishima, Ryunosuke Akutagawa, Hakushu Kitahara, Fujimura Shimazaki, Taro Mori, Sohei Morita, Miyoshi Suzuki and dozens of others, they include all the famous writers at the moment."

From the underlined part above, it is not difficult to infer that "Red Bird" has a strong artistic supremacist tendency, so it scolds inferior reading materials in the preface and says that children are special beings. . It put forward novel views such as "children's innocence", "creating beautiful books for children" and "preserving and developing children's innocence". These views were later summarized as "childlike innocence". The term "childlike innocence" broadly refers to the literary and artistic spirit and creative attitude of the time, so the definition varies from person to person. The "Children's Literature Dictionary" compiled by the Japan Children's Literature Society briefly summarizes "Children's Innocence" as: "Children's Innocence refers to the pure multi-sensory psychological state of children. Fairy tale writers and poets have discovered that children have a unique inner world that is different from adults. Think of them as childlike innocence.

Childlike innocence talks about the heart of children, but it has a negative side, which is the tendency to limit childlike innocence to the nostalgia of adults, which makes childlike innocence fall into escapism from reality, and ultimately It quickly declined in the early Showa period. Nowadays, fairy tales that only describe the simple side of children and lack a sense of reality are evaluated as 'childlike innocence', and childlike innocence is mostly used in negative situations." Based on the above explanation, the author understands childlike innocence as "a view of children and children's art that respects children's free sensibility, keen intuition, and rich imagination, and regards the world of childlike innocence as an absolute ideal world." In addition, from the explanation of childlike innocence, we can easily find that childlike innocence has two aspects, positive and negative. The positive aspect is reflected in the fact that it recognizes the nature and particularity of children and expects them to grow up freely in their hearts. This idea confronts the feudal view of children and the outdated view of education, and has undoubted positive significance from a historical perspective. However, the "childlike innocence" in childlike innocence carries the nostalgia of adults and lacks a sense of reality, so it has been criticized. This is its negative side. In any case, the childlike innocence that emerged in the era of fairy tales and nursery rhymes centered on "Red Bird" had a crucial impact on children's literature in the mid-Taisho period.

3. The decline of romanticism and the birth of fan magazines

After the Great Kanto Earthquake (1923) (late Taisho period), with the rise of proletarian children’s literature, Akatori The childlike innocence trend began to decline sharply, but the literary creation of nursery rhymes and fairy tales pioneered by "Red Bird" did not stop and continued until the end of the Taisho period. What attracted attention after Taisho 13 was the fairy tale collection "The Restaurant with a Lot of Orders" by Miyazawa Kenji, who was not yet famous at the time. In addition, Ogawa Sueaki stopped writing novels. In May of Taisho 15, "Tokyo Day" Nikki Shimbun stated that "we will focus on fairy tales from now on." During this period, unknown newcomers who created fairy tale literature founded fan magazines2, and the literary movement brought about by fan magazines began to rise. "Emerging Fairy Tales" was founded in December of the 14th year of Taisho as the official magazine of the "Emerging Fairy Tales Alliance". The alliance was formed by young people such as Saburo Nakai, Funaki Zhiro, and Shinichi Shimada who submitted articles to "Fairy Tales". They published With the declaration that "we exist in a for-profit fairy tale magazine, we were established to introduce new people and the new fairy tale movement", the alliance also held several gatherings of the younger generation of nursery rhyme and fairy tale authors in Tokyo. Although "New Fairy Tales" published creative fairy tales and short essays, it ceased publication after the third issue was issued in August 15th.

Their literary thoughts were influenced by Sueming, Hisao and others, and can be called modern romanticism and humanism, but their works are still in the initial stage of experimentation. At the end of the Taisho period, nursery rhymes were still in their heyday. Nursery rhyme fan magazines with a rustic flavor, founded by young nursery rhyme contributors to fairy tale magazines, became very popular, but most of them ceased publication after only two or two issues.

Among fairy tale fan magazines, we must mention "The Age of Fairy Tales" founded by Sakai Asahiko in July of the 13th year of Taisho. The first draft of Sakai's own fairy tale masterpiece "The Door and the Poet" was published in this magazine. Later, he published works such as "Fireflies Rising to the Sky" (Tokyo Asahi, Taisho 14) and "Dazzling Tower in the Snow" (Taisho 15, Fukuoka Hichi), which made him a dazzling new star in the fairy tale world. The "Fairy Tale Writers Association" formed by forty-three people in March of Taisho 15 was not only the end of the Taisho fairy tale movement, but also their first step towards the Showa period. The members' works were published in the first volume of the annual magazine "Japanese Fairy Tale Anthology". Seven people including Akita Amebari and Ashiya Ashura served as editors. Contemporary children's painters such as Takeo Takei and Shigeru Hatsuyama were responsible for the frontispiece illustrations. The editorial mission statement at the front of the volume was written by Written by Masao Kusuyama.

Kusuyama wrote in the mission statement: "Today's fairy tales are too messy and disorganized, so (our fairy tales) will not have impure content." They took sorting out the messy fairy tales as the purpose of the anthology. At the same time, he also put forward the lowest common platform for literary unity in the article, "Shouldn't everyone make the original appearance of emerging fairy tales clear through their own works?" This group lasted until Showa 15, before the outbreak of the Pacific War. In June of the 15th year of Taisho, "Fairy Tale" ceased publication after its July issue. As one of the three giants of children's literature alongside "Red Bird" and "Venus", its fall was the beginning of the decline of the era of romantic fairy tales and nursery rhymes. After the Great Kanto Earthquake (1923), with the rise of proletarian children's literature, Taisho children's literature also came to an end.

[2] The Japan Children’s Literature Society compiled the Tokyo Book of Children’s Literature, April 1988

[3] The Japan Children’s Literature Society compiled the Tokyo Book of the Introduction to Japanese Children’s Literature, April 1976

[ 4] Suga Tadashi's Japanese Children's Literature (Supplementary and Revised Edition) Otsuki Shoten, May 14, 1966

[5] Seki Hideo's New Selection of Japanese Children's Literature I Taisho Chapter Children's Literature of the Taisho Period, Komine Shoten, 1959 March of the year;