Accepted Paper
Paper short abstract
Early twentieth-century Japanese writers turned toward the “South” alongside imperial expansion. Influenced by Gauguin and Lafcadio Hearn, Akutagawa Ryūnosuke’s Momotarō reveals the South as a site where literature, art, and imperial ideology intersect.
Paper long abstract
In the first half of the twentieth century, Japanese writers and artists shared a sustained gaze toward the “South,” a gaze that developed in parallel with Japan’s imperial expansion. Akutagawa Ryūnosuke, in particular, showed a keen interest in Paul Gauguin’s aesthetics of the “primitive,” as well as in the works of Japanese painters influenced by Gauguin, such as Tsuchida Bakusen, and in the “southern” imagery found in the art of Hashiguchi Goyō and Yasui Sōtarō.
At the same time, the Japanese state, drawing upon the colonial policies of Western imperial powers, openly articulated its nanshin (southward advance) as a national strategy. Representations of the South in literature and the visual arts were thus produced within, and in dialogue with, this expanding imperial imagination. Moreover, the southern orientation of Lafcadio Hearn—one of Akutagawa’s key intellectual influences—was itself shaped through transnational networks, including his engagement with figures such as Rudyard Kipling. Akutagawa’s vision of the South, therefore, should not be understood merely as an expression of exoticism, but rather as part of a broader cultural network formed within the global context of colonialism.
Against this backdrop, this paper examines Akutagawa’s representations of the South, with particular attention to Momotarō. Focusing on the binary opposition between civilization and barbarism, it seeks to reposition Akutagawa’s “South” as a site where literature, visual culture, and imperial policy intersect. By situating Akutagawa’s work within these historical and international frameworks, the paper aims to shed new light on the ideological and aesthetic dimensions of southern imagery in modern Japanese literature.
Where Is the “South”? Transnational and Literary Perspectives in Modern Japanese Literature