Authors and their public in ancient times

by George Haven Putnam

Japan.

—The civilization of Japan is an off-shoot or development of that of China, and the Japanese literature is based upon Chinese models and standards. The literary relation strikes one as in some respects similar to that which existed between Great Britain and the American Colonies, or later with the American States. The literature of Japan is described, however, as characterized by much more elasticity, variety, and creative originality than is possessed by that of China, and in place of stereotyping itself upon the models of old-time classics, it has shown from century to century a wholesome power of development.

At one time, says Karpeles, Japan possessed an alphabet of its own, but later, the Chinese characters were introduced, and were used together with the older alphabet. It is only the very earliest writings in which the Japanese characters alone are employed. The Japanese scribes have from the beginning worked with brushes rather than with pens, and in so doing, have been able to utilize such substances as silk, which would have been unsuitable for the work of the pen. The invention of paper, however, took place at an early date, possibly simultaneously with its first use in China. Printing from blocks, and later from type, was promptly introduced from China early in our era.

According to the native chroniclers, the earliest literary production of Japan was the work of the two gods Izanaghi and Izanami. These gods, having created the country, thought it was incomplete without some poetry, and the poetry was therefore added. Tsurayuki, a poet of the tenth century, takes the ground that all true expression of feeling is poetry. The nightingale sings in the wood, the frog croaks in the pool; each is giving utterance to a feeling, and each, therefore, is pouring forth a poem. There is no living being, he continues, who is not a producer of poetry. (This is as startling to us ordinary mortals as the discovery of Molière’s Monsieur Jourdain that he had been talking prose all his life without knowing it.) As poetry, says Tsurayuki, begins with the expression of feeling, it must have come into existence with the beginning of creation.[14] In the earliest times, he says, when the gods were poets, the arrangement of sounds into syllables had not been made, and rhythm had not been invented. These early divine poems or utterances of the gods are, therefore, very difficult to understand. Later, however, Susanoo-no-mikoto fixed sounds into syllables, and then, according to the tenth-century poet, Japanese literature had its actual beginning, but he does not give us the date of this useful piece of work. We are inclined to wonder what the wise Susanoo, etc., did about the announcing of his own name, say on really formal occasions, before the little matter of the invention of syllables had been accomplished.

While it is claimed that from prehistoric times there had been in Japan an active production and a wide distribution of poetry (folk-songs), the first collection of the “people’s ballads” appears to have been made as late as 700 A.D. At this time the Emperor, whose residence was at Nara, took an interest in literature, and during the quarter century from 700 to 725 A.D. lived “the noble poet” Yamabe-no-Akahito, and the “wise man of the poets,” Kakino-mo-to-Hito-Maro. (The god above referred to, who bestowed upon Japan the invention of syllables, seems to have done his work thoroughly.) The compilation which took shape during this period is known as the Man-yo-sin, or the “collection of ten thousand leaves.” The two later collections are known as The Old and the New Songs of Japan, and The Hundred Poets.

A special feature in the literature of Japan is the great number of poetesses. The fashion of women interesting themselves in the writing of poetry was initiated by the poetic Empress Soto-oro-ime, in the third century A.D.

The great epic of Japanese literature is the Fei-ke-mono-gatari, that is The Annals of the Fei-ke Dynasty, which is said to have been composed in 1083 A.D., and which was sung among the people by blind rhapsodists. An epic of later date, in twelve books, is credited to the poet Ikanage. The literary record shows a long series of tales and romances, which are described as possessing a graceful fancy and imagination much in advance of Chinese compositions of the same class.

The theatre has from early times played a very important part in the social life of Japan, and dramatic composers are held in high honor. The first dramas written for performance date from about 807 A.D. The people of Japan have from the early times of Japanese literature given cordial appreciation to literary producers, and especially poets and dramatists. The official recognition of literature and of men of letters appears, however, to have been much less distinctive and less important than in China. We do not find record of official positions and preferments being bestowed on the ground of proficiency in philosophy or literature, or by reason of a knowledge of the learning of the past; nor have the smaller government places been distributed by competitive examinations arranged for students of literature.

The distribution of literature among the people appears to have been from an early date very general, and the knowledge of the great classics has certainly been widespread. Of the methods by which such distribution was accomplished in the early centuries of literary production we know nothing. It seems probable from certain references by later authors, that in Japan, as in Greece, the rhapsodists and reciters were the principal distributors.

Of rewards or compensations given to the earlier Japanese authors there is no record. The national treasury does not appear to have been utilized as in China and Assyria. It is possible that the dramatists may have secured some share of the stage receipts, but it is probable that the other authors must have contented themselves with such prestige or honors as came to them from the readers of, or the listeners to, their compositions.