Paper short abstract:

This paper will focus on the issue of so-called sanka, nomadic people who once supposedly lived in Japan, and through the analysis of various texts will explore the ways these „mountain people“ and their lifestyle were portrayed in mid-war journalism as well as in literary works.

Paper long abstract:

Sanka, a group of nomadic people who supposedly lived in Japan and disappeared sometime during the high growth period, has constantly attracted attention of scholars, journalists, and writers, yet to these days little is known about them. The folklorist Kunio Yanagita who researched various nomadic groups he called yamabito (mountain people) was one of the first who pointed out the existence of this mysterious group. Based on Yanagita’s findings Katai Tayama wrote Return Home (Kikoku, 1916), a short story which portrays the life of sanka. As already suggested by literary critics at the time the story was published Tayama does not provide readers with realistic depiction, on the contrary what he presents is clearly romanticized image of self-determined and free-spirited outcasts who live outside the modern society unbound by its rules and morals and this image is resembling the vagabonds who started to appear frequently in modern Japanese literature by the end of Meiji period.

Tayama was probably one of the first who brought the character of sanka to imaginative literature but not the last. The issue of sanka became quite popular and was often picked up not only by writers such as Shiro Kunieda, Kido Okamoto, Yoshizo Nakamura, Kan Misumi and others, but also by journalists. Throughout Taisho and early Showa period significant number of articles about sanka can be traced in the main Japanese newspapers and this fact itself proves the popularity of the topic among readers. Notably many of these articles provided contrasting views on the issue of sanka, sometimes dismissive at other times fiercely critical.

This paper does not intend to explore the very existence of sanka, rather than that it focuses on how this issue was presented in media and how it was embodied in the works of literature. Through the analysis of various forms of representations and meanings attributed to sanka we can trace the ambivalent attitude as some were attracted by the idea of self-determined way of life while others rejected it as a form of rebellion that threatens the very foundations of state.