PATRIOTIC ASSOCIATION FOR JAPANESE LITERATURE. The Patriotic Association for Japanese Literature (Nihon Bungaku Hôkokukai), established in 1942 with Tokutomi Sohô as president, was essentially a selective reorganization of the Japan Writers’ Association aimed to assist with Imperial rule. Many authors who were members of the proletarian literature movement were denied access to the association. In the summer of 1942, the organization conducted a “Patriotic Literature Movement Lecture Series” across the nation, and at the end of World War II it was dissolved as part of the reformation of the Japan Writers’ Association. See also NATIONALISM; WAR LITERATURE.
PILLAR OF FIRE. See HI NO HASHIRA.
PLUM BLOSSOMS IN THE SNOW. See SETCHÛBAI.
POETRY. Poetry has always played an integral role in Japanese literature. From the earliest introduction of the Chinese writing system, Japanese language poetry was being collected and written in such works as the eighth-century Man’yôshû (Collection of Myriad Leaves, ca. 760) and the 10th-century Kokin wakashû (Collected Japanese Poems of Ancient and Modern Times, ca. 920). Lyric verse was written in both Chinese and Japanese, but over time the native waka form of 5–7–5–7–7 syllables came to predominate. From the 12th century onward, a new form of poetry called renga (linked verse) appeared, involving waka chains composed by multiple poets. During the Tokugawa period, a 5–7–5 syllable form called haikai, an offshoot of renga, emerged as well, and both waka and haikai continued to dominate the lyric tradition into the Meiji period.
During the late 19th century, writers such as Mori Ôgai and Ueda Bin published anthologies of translated Western poetry that had a profound effect on new poets. Some experimented with free verse, others sought to breathe new life into the waka and haikai forms. Waka underwent a transformation and became known as tanka, and haikai was transformed into the now-familiar haiku. Poets in the 1920s and 1930s experimented with other modernist forms, including expressionism, symbolism, and Dadaism. All three genres have flourished during the modern period, and poetry circles and contests are ubiquitous in Japan today. See also AIDA MITSUO; FUKUNAGA TAKEHIKO; HORIGUICHI DAIGAKU; INOUE YASUSHI; SATÔ HARUO; SHIMAZAKI TÔSON; TACHIHARA MICHIZÔ; TAKAMI JUN; TAKAMURA KÔTARÔ; TAWARA MACHI; TOMIOKA TAEKO; TSUBOI SAKAE; TSUBOI SHIGEJI; YAMADA BIMYÔ; YAMAMOTO MICHIKO; YOSANO AKIKO; YOSANO TEKKAN; YOSHII ISAMU.
POLITICAL NARRATIVES. The short-lived genre of Japanese political narratives (seiji shôsetsu) appeared during the 1870s, fed by a contemporary popular interest in politics in the wake of the Meiji Restoration. The stories, whose flat characterizations and simple, propagandistic plots lacked serious literary quality, nevertheless helped shape readers’ thoughts on Meiji politics. Author Yano Ryûkei (1851–1931) helped establish the genre with his Keikoku bidan (Inspiring Tales of Statesmanship, 1883). Other key authors include Tokutomi Sohô, who edited Kokumin no tomo (The People’s Friend) from 1887 to 1898, Suehiro Tetchô, whose science fiction work Setchûbai (Plum Blossoms in the Snow, 1886) envisaged a futuristic Japan, and Tôkai Sanshi, whose Kajin no Kigû (1885–97; tr. Strange Encounters with Beautiful Women, 1948) included a bevy of foreign protagonists. Flagging popular interest in politics following the establishment of the Diet, as well as the rise of newspapers as a vehicle for political discourse, led to the rapid decline of political narratives by the end of the 19th century. See also MODERN THEATER.
POSTMODERNISM. Postmodernism (posuto modan shugi) is a post–World War II literary movement that both continued and reacted against the ideas of modernism. In Japan, the movement began with Tanaka Yasuo’s novel Nantonaku Kuristaru (Somewhat Like Crystal, 1980). The novel, depicting a female college student’s life and her intricate web of tastes, consumer products, and restaurants, was an original, self-aware twist on its mundane and pessimistic subject matter. Modern writers Takahashi Gen’ichirô’s (1951–) Sayônara Gyangutachi (Goodbye, Gangsters, 1981), Shimada Masahiko’s (1961–) Yasashii sayoku no tame no kiyûkyoku (A Divertimento for the Kind Left Wing, 1983), and Kobayashi Kyôji’s Denwa otoko (Telephone Man, 1985) represent pioneering postmodernist works, for which they have been dubbed the “Big Three” of Japanese postmodernism. See also MURAKAMI HARUKI.
POSTWAR LITERATURE. Postwar literature is a term used for fiction written immediately following World War II that arose out of the disaffection and loss of purpose caused by Japan’s defeat. Themes often include the Occupation, soldiers’ experiences, and the terrors of nuclear war. Beyond the direct influences on authors’ choices of topics, the end of the war caused a shift in Japanese religious and social attitudes that permeates the literature of the time. As Western, particularly American, cultural influences began to enter the country, Japanese literature also began to take on some of its aspects. Examples of postwar authors include Dazai Osamu, Mishima Yukio, and Ôe Kenzaburô. See also ATOMIC BOMB LITERATURE; LITERARY CRITICISM; THIRD GENERATION; WAR LITERATURE.
POSUTO MODAN SHUGI. See POSTMODERNISM.
PROLETARIAN LITERATURE. The proletarian literature movement in Japan (1920s to 1930s) followed similar political and artistic movements in Europe and Russia. Japan’s isolationist period ended with the Meiji Restoration, when a rapid push toward industrialization caused Japan to rely on its colonized Chinese and Korean workers to fuel industrial growth in an effort to keep stride with its Western rivals. Japanese proletarian writers were heavily influenced by the 1920 Baku Conference, which transferred European ideals of communism and anticolonialism to movements in Asia and Africa. The proletarian movement in Japan began in 1921 when Komaki Ômi (1894–1978) published the workers’ journal Tanemaku hito (The Sowers). In 1928, the Nippona Artista Proleta Federacio was formed, eschewing “arts” and embracing “culture” as their key focus. The expansion of international proletarian arts groups grew to include a new variety of writers who fought government criticism and dealt with the social trials of the working class.
Notable Japanese proletarian works include Kobayashi Takiji’s Kanikôsen (1929; tr. The Factory Ship, 1956), an illustration of the early unionization of fishing workers; Hirotsu Kazuo’s Izumi e no michi (Road to the Spring, 1953–54); and Matsukawa Saiban (The Matsukawa Trial, 1954–58), a responsive defense of supposed Japanese Communist saboteurs after the Matsukawa railway accident in 1949; and Hayama Yoshiki’s Umi ni ikiru hitobito (Men Who Live on the Sea, 1926), a novel about the appalling labor conditions on work boats. Other notable writers include Miyamoto Yuriko and Nogawa Takashi (1901–44). Proletarian literature is occasionally partnered with modernism or descriptive neoperceptionism. See also CENSORSHIP; ENCHI FUMIKO; FUJIMORI SEIKICHI; HIJIKATA YOSHI; HIRABAYASHI TAIKO; HORI TATSUO; I-NOVELS; KOBAYASHI HIDEO; KUROSHIMA DENJI; LITERARY CRITICISM; MARXISM; MIYAZAWA KENJI; MODERN THEATER; NAGAYO YOSHIRÔ; NAKANO SHIGEHARU; NATIONALISM; NOGAMI YAEKO; OGUMA HIDEO; PATRIOTIC ASSOCIATION FOR JAPANESE LITERATURE; SHUGI; THOUGHT POLICE; TOKUNAGA SUNAO; TSUBOI SHIGEJI; WAR LITERATURE.
PSEUDOCLASSICISM. Pseudoclassicism (gikoten shugi), the imitation of classical literature in modern works, is an offshoot of the classicist emphasis on past art styles and forms. In Japan, the tradition of pseudoclassicism, seen in the overt classical allusions of Heian works by such authors as Ihara Saikaku (1642–93), were resurrected during the Meiji period by Ozaki Kôyô, Kôda Rohan, and Higuchi Ichiyô. See also AESTHETICISM; GENBUN ITCHI.
PSYCHOLOGICAL LITERATURE. As early as the Tale of Genji (ca. 1008), Japanese literature has explored the inner workings of the human psyche. During the Meiji period, when Western translations and adaptations made their way to Japan, writers and intellectuals were struck by the psychological realism found therein, and early narrative experiments, such as those in the writing of Futabatei Shimei and Natsume Sôseki, focus heavily on point of view and employ self-conscious narration. Indeed, the I-Novel can be read as a type of psychological literature. Plot development has long been secondary to the inner emotions of Japanese protagonists, so it is unsurprising that many of the best-known modern Japanese authors are considered to have written psychological stories, including Kawabata Yasunari, Akutagawa Ryûnosuke, and Murakami Haruki. See also FUTABATEI SHIMEI; MEIAN.
PUBLISHING HOUSES. The modern Japanese publishing industry began during the Meiji period with the widespread use of moveable type. Prior to that time, Japanese publishers favored wood block printing, owing to its facility for including illustrations. As newspapers began to appear in the late 19th century, they sought to expand readership by adding serialized tales written by avant-garde writers or transcribed from the performances of professional storytellers (see KÔDAN; RAKUGO). Book publishers also emerged as the market grew for reprints of Tokugawa-period fiction, translations of Western literature, and contemporary experimental fiction. Many modern publishing houses, such as Kôdansha and Hakubunkan, made their initial capital off the success of publishing taishû bungaku (popular literature) written in a colloquial (genbun itchi) style. In postwar Japan, such literary journals as Bungei shunjû (Literary Chronicle) bolstered publishers’ reputations and coffers. In recent years, publishing houses have faced growing pressures owing to the postbubble recession and advances in Internet publishing. See also AKAI TORI; BUNDAN; CENSORSHIP; CHÛÔ KÔRON; KIKUCHI KAN; LITERARY AWARDS; LITERARY JOURNALS; MANGA; TOKUGAWA LITERATURE; TOKUTOMI SOHÔ; YOSE.