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For although of unexceptionable morality, and addressed wergznibus puerisque, the stories and illus- trations with which this and others of these collections abound are frequently of a very Rabelaisian character. The Shingaku Dowa is somewhat more scrupulous in this respect, and reaches a higher level in every other way except that it is unfortunately less amusing. Three sermons from the Kzwd Déwa have been trans- lated by Mr. Mitford in his Zales of Old Japan. One of these, comprising the original text, notes, a romanised version, and an English translation, was published by the late J. O’Neill as a Aerst Japanese Book. The Shingaku movement received a good deal: of official support and countenance, and attracted much public attention, during the first half of the nineteenth ' century ; but it is not surprising that it ultimately proved abortive. The attempt to reconcile three such conflicting elements as Buddhism, Shinto, and Confucianism. was in reality hopeless. 344 JAPANESE LITERATURE The Buddhist literature of Japan forms a separate sub- ject, which I shall not attempt to deal with. Most of it is in the Chinese language, and that part which is in Japanese is not very important as literature. It consists . chiefly of lives of the Buddhist saints, and of edifying tracts and stories all addressed to the more ignorant classes, and highly seasoned with a _ thaumaturgic element. CHAPTER VIII NINETEENTH CENTURY (Continued) FICTION ROMANTIC SCHOOL — KIODEN, ‘TANEHIKO, BAKIN, HUMOURISTS—SAMBA, IKKU. SENTIMENTAL NOVELS —SHUNSUI. WORKS IN CHINESE OF YEDO PERIOD THE eighteenth-century writers of Jitsuroku-mono or historical novels did not attempt to invent plots for them- selves or to introduce imaginary personages of import- ance, although in minor details they aliowed their fancy free play. SANTO KIODEN (1761-1816) was the first to give to the world the romantic novel pure and simple. He was followed by Bakin, Tanehiko, and a host of other writers whose existence can only be indicated. It is quite impossible to notice them or their numerous works more particularly. Kkioden was a genuine Yedokko or Child of Yedo, the Japanese term corresponding to our “Cockney.” He was born in that city in 1761, of parents of the merchant class. His youth was unproimising. He spent much of his time in places of ill resort, sometimes remaining away from home for weeks together. Books were his abhor- rence, and all attempts to teach him a profession were in vain. He took lessons in painting from the well-known artist Kitawo Shigemasa, and it is stated by Mr. W. Ander- son! that he has left many beautiful chromoxylographs, 1 In his Catalogue of Japanese Pictures in the British Museum, 345 346 - JAPANESE LITERATURE but his native biographers pronounce him a failure in this respect also. In 1790 he married a woman of the harlot class. Notwithstanding what has been asserted by some | English writers, such unions are regarded in Japan with marked disapproval, and his friends augured little good of Kidden’s choice. His wife, however, proved an excep- tion to the general rule. She made an excellent house- wife, and, the chief of virtues in a Japanese married woman, was unremitting in her dutiful attentions to her father-in-law. In short, she won respect from all Kioden’s acquaintances, and was spoken of by them as “ the lotus- flower which has its roots in the mud.” When she died he married another woman of the same class, who also made him a good wife. Kidden’s place of business was near the Kiobashi (a bridge) in the street called Temmacho. Hence the name by which he is known as an author, and which is com- posed of the first syllables of the names of these two places. His real name was Iwase Denzé, and he had half-a-dozen other appellations at various periods of his life and in various capacities. Kioden sold smoking apparatus, such as pipes, tobacco-pouches, and the like, while he was also the inventor and compounder of a ‘quack medicine, to which he gave the name of Doku- shogwan, or Reading. Pills, the precise operation of which I have not been able to discover. He had the reputation of a shrewd and successful man of business, and was especially noted for his quickness at mental reckoning. He seldom bought books, but was always borrowing, and made it arule when drinking with a friend that each should pay his own share, which, as we know from “ Auld Lang Syne,” was also the practice of Robert Burns. This became known as the Kidden fashion, KIODENY fF 0-4 347 . Kidden’s first work (1782) was an imitation, more by _ way of joke than anything else, of some ephemeral pub- lications describing the manners of the brothel-quarter of Yedo. It was successful to a degree which surprised no one more than the author. His next work was equally well received. Fortunately for his fame, his career as a purveyor of pornography was put a stop to by the police authorities. Kidden, with many others, was prosecuted under the edict promulgated in 1791 for the suppression of such publications, and was condemned to fifty days’ handcuffs (in his own house). The work which brought down on him this punishment he had had the audacity to describe on the cover as an “Edifying Story-book.” He wrote no more books of this kind. In one of his later prefaces he protests strenuously that his works, although fiction, would be found to inculcate the highest morality. It is quite true that they are free from coarse- ness or licentiousness, although their moral tendency leaves something to be desired, at least from the Euro- pean point of view. Kidden lost nothing by his reforma- tion. The bookshops were crowded by eager purchasers of his novels. The very horse-boys and cow-herds knew his name, and his house was besieged by rival publishers clamouring for manuscript. Kidden took advantage of his popularity to insist on definite payment for his com- positions. His predecessors, we are told, received nothing for their works but an occasional invitation to supper in some place of public resort, or presents of trifling value when their books sold well. The first work for which Kidden bargained for pay- ment was an early production entitled Shdg¢ Kinuburut, a share-bon, for which he received the munificent sum of one rio. 348 JAPANESE LITERATURE Kidden’s best known stories are the /xadzuma Hidshi (1805), of which some account is given below, the Honcho Sutbodai (1806), the Udonge Monogatari (1804), the Soshoki (1813), the Chzushin Suikoden (1798), a version of the forty-seven Ronin legend, and the Pukushiu Kidan Asaka no numa. He was also the author of two works of anti- quarian research which are much valued by native spe- cialists: these are the Kottéshiu and the Kinse Kikeki Ko. Kioden’s writings would be classed by us among “sen- sation” novels. Wonder, amazement, and horror are the feelings which he aims, not unsuccessfully, at exciting. His style, however, is simple and straightforward ; and although he can be graphic and picturesque upon occa- sion, he is not fond of that superfine writing to which some of his successors and contemporaries were so prone, and which is so exasperating to European readers. It is possibly a mere personal bias which leads me to prefer him to his pupil, the much-vaunted Bakin. If any Japanese novel deserves to be published complete in English dress, one of Kioden’s would, I think, be found the most suitable for this purpose. His masterpiece is perhaps the /zadzuma Hidshi, one of those tales of revenge of which the Japanese popular literature contains many examples. The characters are so numerous and the plot so complicated that it is impos- sible to give an adequate summary of it here. Amongst the incidents related are several murders and homicides, described with much vigour and an abundance of grue- some details, a hara-kiri and other suicides, thefts, sales of women by their relatives, terrific combats, hairbreadth escapes, dying speeches of great length, tortures, strange meetings, and surprising recognitions. There is an ex- cellent description of a Japanese fair, with its booths of KIODEN 349 merchandise, its lecturers, quack-doctors, fortune-tellers, and shows of wonders. There are beauteous maidens at the sight of whom the moon hides her head for shame and the flowers close, demons of smallpox and of suicide, scenes of witchcraft and enchantment, with “ Dreams, magic terrors, spells of mighty power, Witches and ghosts who rove at the nightly hour? This is surely a sufficient stock of material with which to furnish a novel of twenty chapters and about three hundred pages. Each chapter, as is the custom with Japanese novelists, has a sensational heading, such as “The Hovel and the Strange Stratagem,” “The Danger by the Wayside Shrine,” “The Guitar’s Broken String,” “The Witchcraft of the Venomous Rats,” “The Drum of Hell.” The following is part of the opening chapter of the Honcho Sutbodat :-— “Tn the reign of Go Hanazono [fifteenth century] there was a pilgrim named Shikama no Sonematsu. He had been told in his youth by a soothsayer that his physiog- nomy indicated a danger by the sword, so in order to avoid such a calamity he entered the way of Buddha. He had no settled residence, but wandered about visiting one province after another. At length he arrived at a place called Rokud6, in the district of Atago, in the pro- vince of Yamashiro. Darkness came on. A wide moor stretched out before him which afforded no lodging, so he resolved to spend the night there, and take shelter under a tree. This Rokudo is a place of burial on the moor of Toribe, provided for all sorts and conditions of men. Here the monuments of the dead stand in long rows, some overgrown with moss, some freshly carved.