WAGAHAI WA NEKO DE ARU. Wagahai wa neko de aru (1905–6; tr. I Am a Cat, 1961) is a novel by Natsume Sôseki that first appeared in installments in Hototogisu (The Cuckoo), a literary journal. The satirical novel comically touches on current issues, such as the intermingling of traditional Japanese customs and new, imported Western ideas. The novel documents, from the point of view of a haughty house cat, the lives of several middle-class Japanese, including the cat’s master, his family, and a young couple. The cat continually asserts the superiority of the feline race, judging the humans foolish for their mistakes, though, in the end, the drunken cat drowns in a water barrel.
WAKA. See TANKA.
WAR LITERATURE. Tales of military valor (gunki, gundan) were an important genre prior to the Meiji period, with such works as the 14th-century Heike monogatari (Tale of the Heike) and Taiheiki (Chronicle of the Peace) appearing in both written and oral versions throughout the Tokugawa period. Nationalism soared following Japan’s defeat of Qing China (1894–95), and when Japan fought Russia in 1904–5, many writers and poets participated in this new, modern war, often as correspondents for newspapers. Some wrote of the events using classical allusions to earlier war tales, while others, such as Yosano Akiko, took an antiwar stance in her poetry.
Japan’s militarism during the 1920s and 1930s led to greater literary oppression. Writers were subject to heavy censorship, and paper was strictly rationed. Many novels published during this time, such as those by Hino Ashihei, glorified the war and even served as propaganda. Some authors, such as Tanizaki Jun’ichirô and Kawabata Yasunari, largely avoided censorship by writing beautiful but politically neutral love stories. Others distinctly opposed the war, including Ishikawa Tatsuzô, Oguma Hideo, and Kuroshima Denji, attempting to publish antiwar literature or disturbing, realistic accounts of attacks. Many of these writings, however, were not published until after the war was over. Some writers spent time working as war correspondents in China and Southeast Asia and later drew on these wartime experiences for their literary and nonfiction works. Military tales remain a staple of popular Japanese fiction, which contains a plethora of samurai stories as well as tales of valor and tragedy from World War II. See also ATOMIC BOMB LITERATURE; KINOSHITA NAOE; MISHIMA YUKIO; MORI ÔGAI; NOMA HIROSHI; NOSAKA AKIYUKI; PATRIOTIC ASSOCIATION FOR JAPANESE LITERATURE; POSTWAR LITERATURE; PROLETARIAN LITERATURE; SAKAGUCHI ANGO; SHIMAO TOSHIO; TAKAMI JUN; TAKEDA TAIJUN; THIRD GENERATION; THOUGHT POLICE; TSUBOI SHIGEJI.
WASEDA BUNGAKU. Waseda bungaku (Waseda Literature) is the journal of Waseda University’s literature department. Since Tsubouchi Shôyô published the first issue in 1891, the journal has witnessed 10 different “eras,” each emphasizing a different style and featuring various authors. The longest hiatus between eras was eight years. The first era featured Tsubouchi’s literary criticism, Mori Ôgai’s realist theory, and the writings of Shimamura Hôgetsu and Hirotsu Ryûrô. Subsequent eras focused on naturalist writing. Tanizaki Seiji (1890–1971), the younger brother of Tanizaki Jun’ichirô, was chairman during the third era, and Tachihara Masaaki was editor-in-chief during the seventh era. In recent years, the Waseda Bungaku Newcomer Prize was established, and the journal has featured the work of critic Ikeda Yûichi (1969–). The 10th era began in 2008, featuring a novel by Kawakami Mieko (1976–). See also LITERARY JOURNALS.
WASEDA LITERATURE. See WASEDA BUNGAKU.
WATAKUSHI SHÔSETSU. See I-NOVEL.
WATANABE KAZUO (1901–1975). Watanabe Kazuo was a Tokyo-born scholar and well-known translator. He started learning French in middle school and graduated from Tokyo University in French literature in 1925. Thereafter, he taught high school in Tokyo and then was employed at the Ministry of Education as a researcher, which took him to France from 1931 to 1933. In 1940, he was hired at Tokyo University, and during World War II he spent his time translating works by Rabelais and Thomas Mann. He received the Yomiuri Prize in 1964 for his translation of Rabelais’s The Life of Gargantua and of Pantagruel (which was said to be untranslatable), and the Asahi Cultural Prize in 1971.
WEIR, THE. See SHIGARAMI ZÔSHI.
WHITE BIRCH SOCIETY. See SHIRAKABA.
WILD GEESE, THE. See GAN.
WIND-UP BIRD CHRONICLES, THE. See NEJIMAKI-DORI KURONIKURU.
WOMAN IN THE DUNES. See SUNA NO ONNA.
WOMEN IN LITERATURE. Women play an important role in all forms of Japanese literature. Many classical Japanese authors were women and even the very style of vernacular written Japanese has origins in writing that was used by women in the Heian court. The metamorphosis of female characterization speaks volumes about cultural expectations and changing social roles for women in Japan. In the earliest mythology, Amaterasu, the sun goddess, has great power and gives birth to the Japanese imperial line. Folklore contains a variety of women stereotypes, including the angelic self-sacrificing wife and virtuous maiden, as well as the demonic yamauba (mountain hag) and yukionna (snow woman). Classical Japanese narratives, such as the Tale of Genji (ca. 1008), were often written by women and include memorable female protagonists of complex psychological depth. The lyric tradition includes not only women poets who express their longings openly, but also a variety of female archetypes for, or about whom, poetry was written. In drama, the nô and kabuki traditions contain a full spectrum of both good and evil women characters.
Women’s roles in society underwent reevaluation following the Meiji Restoration. On the one hand, the government promoted traditional roles and values in such slogans as “ryôsai kenbo” (good wives, wise mothers), and didactic fiction tended to empasize this stereotype. Yet other narrative works, such as Izumi Kyôka’s “Kôya hijiri” (1900; tr. The Kôya Priest, 1959–60), underscore the mystical, demonic female character. The tanka of Yosano Akiko, with their overt description of female desire, offered a profound challenge to the Meiji-period stereotypes. By the 20th century, translations of Western novels and a swing toward realist fiction, along with the influence of Japanese feminism, led to more complex and three-dimensional female protagonists, such as the four sisters in Tanizaki Jun’ichirô’s wartime novel Sasameyuki (1943–48; tr. The Makioka Sisters, 1957).
After the war, the Occupation brought new cultural innovations and expectations to Japanese women, which were expanded during the 1960s and 1970s as waves of new women writers published stories that explored the range of changing female stereotypes and the tensions of the Japanese workplace. Many contemporary novels, such as the stories of Tsushima Yûko, depict women who are confused by the array of expectations and options available to them, while others, such as works by Yamada Eimi, portray aggressive female characters in control of their destinies. See also ARAI MOTOKO; ARIYOSHI SAWAKO; CELL-PHONE NOVELS; ENCHI FUMIKO; FEMINISM; FUTON; GAN; HAYASHI FUMIKO; HAYASHI MARIKO; HIGUCHI ICHIYÔ; HIRABAYASHI TAIKO; HOTOTOGISU; IZU NO ODORIKO; KAJIN NO KIGÛ; KANEKO MISUZU; KÔNO TAEKO; KUROTOKAGE; MAIHIME; MEIAN; MIZUMURA MINAE; ÔBA MINAKO; OKAMOTO KANOKO; OZAKI KÔYÔ; SATA INEKO; SETOUCHI JAKUCHÔ; SHAYÔ; SHIMAO TOSHIO; SONO AYAKO; TADE KÛ MUSHI, TAKEKURABE; TOKUDA SHÛSEI; UKIGUMO; WOMEN’S LITERATURE PRIZE; YAMAMOTO MICHIKO; YOSHIMOTO BANANA; YUKIGUNI.
WOMEN’S LITERATURE PRIZE. The Women’s Literature Prize (Joryû bungaku shô) is a literary award given annually for the best work of fiction written by a woman. The prize was established in 1961 and sponsored by the Chûô Kôron publishing house to encourage literary talent among women and has been awarded to authors including Enchi Fumiko, Sata Ineko, and Uno Chiyo. The winner receives a commemorative plaque and a cash award of one million yen. In 2001, the name of the award was changed to Fujin Kôron Literary Prize.
WRITERS’ GUILDS. See BUNDAN.