Research Projects

Comprehensive Research of Interaction with Other Literary Persons in Japan, China and Korea at Meiji Taisho Era

Considering the role of literature in international exchange and cultural understanding from exchanges through Chinese poetry.

This project will attempt to clarify the friendships formed through exchanges of poetry by literary figures in Japan, China (including Taiwan and Hong Kong etc. This applies hereinafter) and Korea during the Meiji and Taisho eras.

Until the Meiji and Taisho eras, the Chinese classics were important "textbooks" in every way in Japan and Korea, including for culture and politics. Almost all of the contemporary intellectuals in Japan and Korea could freely read and write classical Chinese. The intellectuals of Japan, China and Korea were able to communicate with each other through classical Chinese as a so-called "lingua franca." Words of poetry, especially, expressed not only the sentiment and emotions of the writer, but have also been utilized as the tools of exchange since ancient times: pleasantries composed at parties, verses of parting, and congratulations at a birth.

It is worth noting the fact that exchanges of these 'vers de societe' also took place to no small extent during the Sino-Japanese and First and Second World Wars. This project will focus on the rare period of the Meiji and Taisho eras when there was exchange between the countries of East Asia without a language barrier, considering the role literature plays in international exchange and cultural understanding while clarifying the reality of exchanges through the words of the poetry of Japan, China and Korea. Through this project, it is hoped that clues for the mutual understanding of the countries of Asia will be discovered, overcoming the differences in opinions and circumstances.

The project will first gather the poems composed and exchanged by the literary figures of Japan, China and Korea respectively. As many examples of such poetry were submitted to contemporary magazines for Chinese poetry and literature, and to newspapers, they have not survived in a collected form. As well as seeking these poems out and organizing them, each poem will be interpreted, and its characteristics and transformation as literature will be detailed. The reality of the exchange will be approached; which emotions and words were actually exchanged through the poems?

This research will advance while seeking cooperation with researchers of Chinese Studies, History and Japanese Literature, as well as those researching Chinese literature in Japan, China and Korea, and staying in close contact with them. Finally, this project aims to publish a collection of papers compiling the outcomes of this research, and a collected version of the works gathered, tentatively titled "Collected Poems of Exchange from Japan, China and Korea in the Meiji and Taisho Era".

Research Projects