Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the tension between Meiji Japan's imperial project and the emergence of political idealism and activism inspired by Russia's revolutionary movement. It centers on the writings of Futabatei Shimei and the reformist work of the Heiminsha (People's Society) coterie.

Paper long abstract:

This paper explores the intersection of Japan's imperial project of the Meiji period (1868-1912) and the emergence of social and political idealism and activism at the turn of the twentieth century, especially in the context of the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05) and its aftermath. The focus will be Futabatei Shimei (1864-1909; pen name of Hasegawa Tatsunosuke), a writer and intellectual whose unparalleled mastery of Russian language and literature eventuated in a major body of literary translation, fiction, and socio-political writings. It will consider Futabatei's journalistic career, during and after the war with Russia, as Russian affairs specialist with one of Japan's leading daily newspapers, the Asahi shinbun, and the constraints that this position imposed upon him. Futabatei's ambivalent stance vis a vis Meiji Japan's imperial expansionism will be noted, together with his embrace of social reformism and humanitarian movements largely inspired by developments in Russia, in the wake of the war. Of particular interest is Futabatei's translation of Russian fiction— by Tolstoy, Gorky, Garshin, and Andreyev, among others— which channeled a powerfully anti-war message.

Futabatei is positioned within the broader context of the idealism and political activism that marked the late Meiji period (1868-1912), both before and after the Russo-Japanese war. Attention is paid to an important reformist coterie, the Heiminsha (People's Society), and to writers and intellectuals such as Uchida Roan (1868-1929), Uchimura Kanzô (1861-1929), Kôtoku Shûsui (1871-1911), and Tokutomi Roka (1868-1927) who were committed, in their respective ways, to a humanist and reformist agenda. Together with Futabatei, they were cognizant of, and moved by, Russia's revolutionary movement of 1905. Mention is made as well of the contribution of a new cadre of late-Meiji and early-Taishô (1912-26) feminists to Japanese idealism and social reformism.

In conclusion, a comparison is drawn between the late-Meiji work of the Heiminsha group and Futabatei Shimei, and Japan's Proletarian Literary Movement, which emerged in the wake of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. This movement, which was directly modeled upon Russia's Proletkult (Proletarian Culture) movement of 1917, inspired wide-ranging literary and artistic production during the 1920s, prior to the militarist suppression of leftist activism.