Aims, Genres and Distinctive Features

English translation

AI-assisted English translation. The Japanese original remains authoritative.

Originally published: 11 January 2020.

This statement of principles and proposed activities was published in 2020. The source is preserved with its plans for a time capsule, titles, events, and courses. It is not a notice confirming their present implementation or the current validity of those arrangements.

News 2: Aims, genres, and distinctive character

1. Bring Japanese romanticism to the whole world

Japanese literary scholarship does not sufficiently incorporate interdisciplinary elements. Research into Japan’s romantic literary activities tends especially to neglect them. To focus solely on poets’ conduct and personalities is excessively one-sided. Japanese romantic activity is far more passionate than Western romanticism, and this is not unrelated to the great influx of Western civilization and the diversification of values during the Meiji and Taisho periods. Amid the trend of “leaving Asia and entering Europe,” a distinctively Japanese affirmation of human love emerged, strangely seeming to return our perspective to the ancient world of the Man’yoshu. Its main current touches modern hearts much more deeply than the early naturalist realism that subsequently occupied the foremost place in literary history. In our postmodern present, the Society hopes to investigate it, make it an object of research, and encourage the rise of a new romanticism.

2. Nurture the broad range of arts embraced by romanticism

Japan’s romantic world is now in an age of salmagundi—a mixed stew. Life itself overflows with fundamental human concerns: life and death, affection, love and hate, impermanence, freedom, and dignity. Its genres extend to film and images, music, painting, architecture, performing arts, karaoke, and even gardening. The romantic worldview ranges freely beyond tanka. Can this Society become a place for experimentation, producing powerful works that encompass the dynamism of thought, sight, and sound and respond to a new information age? What is human existence? Let us question from its foundations the meaning of being human, which AI cannot acquire however much it might wish to, and send something authentic into an age decorated with fabricated phenomena. Let those of a romantic spirit address their themes with true passion.

3. International Goodwill

Kindly consider this academy is worldwide and always wants to keep peace, mutual understanding and worm-hearted individual relationships. And here is hoping you will send us poems, tanka, haiku with hearty sincerity and benevolent consideration. We do believe human passion should be superior to AI mentality and international negotiation should be done with thoughtful compassion rather than inconsiderate win-win relationships. Devotion with each other is much more precious than monetary give-and-takes.

4. Open the time capsule in 500 years: a plan under development

Of course, once all the volumes are complete, we will ask the National Diet Library and major university libraries to add them to their collections. Yet we cannot know whether they will survive as archives 500 years from now. We are therefore considering a separate time capsule containing this three-volume work and associated objects, with a request that it be opened after 500 years. The Society envisages a capsule that will preserve poems reflecting our age for five centuries. Fine poems, criticism, and outstanding short and long fiction will be revealed then and presented to people of the future, together with some direct questions. You who live 500 years from now: has war completely disappeared in your time? Has scientific civilization alone advanced, while reflection on humanity still goes round in circles, presupposing war and repeatedly approaching the brink of barbarity? Written culture cannot converse with people of the past, but it can communicate with people of the future. If they are still foolishly brandishing nuclear weapons for war, let us lament with them. Let us scold the politicians of 500 years hence.

5. Headquarters in a birthplace of modern Japanese history

Our Society speaks from Japan, a friend to the world, with a heartfelt love of peace and respect for human life. Unlike the nationalism of the twentieth century, twenty-first-century Japan is a model of pacifism for the world. We establish our headquarters in Hayama, the town of the imperial villa that symbolizes this, speaking from a birthplace of the romantic spirit itself. Along Hayama’s shores of white sand and green pines stood the imperial villa and numerous holiday homes of political and cultural figures of the Meiji and Taisho periods. In an age of great hardship, Hayama was itself a stage of history. Just as Japan was reborn after the war, Hayama too seems to gather together the passions of modern and contemporary Japanese history: the Museum of Modern Art, Hayama, the memorial museum of Japanese-style painter Hoshun Yamaguchi, and Ikkei-an and the Shiomi residence within the former imperial-villa grounds. It is now possible to hire the Western-style Higashifushimi residence for regular meetings; the ancient capital of Kamakura is nearby. The landscapes of Yasujiro Ozu’s films still live on. We can therefore invite members from other regions, hold a tea gathering at Ikkei-an, and dine at a hotel with sunset views of Mount Fuji. Even Tekkan and Akiko’s “House of Myojo” need no longer be a dream. The place from which we communicate romanticism is also where members gather.

6. Events worthy of the name of romanticism

When I taught at the State University of New York in the 1970s, poetry readings were often held downtown. I would write and read English poems, and the literary critic Fiedler would recite a poem incorporating Momotaro. In class I taught the Man’yoshu, the Shin Kokinshu, Tekkan, Akiko, Mokichi, and Hakushu; at readings I placed romantic poetry that transcended its age alongside Beat poetry. Half a century has passed. America and Japan are secure, but neighboring countries are full of turmoil. As in mid-nineteenth-century America, romanticism is on the verge of suffocation. The life of smoke and steam that Thoreau lamented is still a reality. Yet even if God is dead to the realist eye, can the romantic spirit in the heart die? We must not let it. Let us converse, hold readings, organize poetry gatherings, and perform plays.

7. A system of advancement

As an organization bearing the name of a learned society, we have criteria for reviewing application résumés and works. Original works and research papers exceeding that standard are highly valued. In recognition of sustained effort, the Society awards the titles of associate professor and professor. Our reviewers already hold professorial qualifications under the Ministry of Education’s standards for establishing graduate schools, giving us the basis to establish a system that encourages early- and mid-career practitioners. In creative fields, too, we hope to establish a system in which masters confer titles, impartially administered by people already qualified as heads of schools or professors in traditions such as tea ceremony and flower arrangement. Authoritarianism, the subjectivity of a few judges, bias, and commercialism must be firmly excluded from the worlds of art and scholarship.

8. For those who want to begin with the basics

Everyone begins as an amateur. Unable to judge good writing from bad, beginners sometimes mistake poor prose for skillful work. No matter how much they write, a succession of such sentences will not be accepted. A novel manuscript may be returned without anyone explaining its faults. Ask what is wrong, and there is no answer—because every line is unusable. The Society offers a membership system providing thorough instruction for such people, with patient, careful guidance. For beginners hoping to write a master’s thesis, we also teach how to establish a theme and structure, investigate previous research, and select references. Even graduate students who lack these basics may fail after submission and have to repeat a year, and then another. Choose your field within the Society and apply. Reach the world through short English poetic forms. You can gain an understanding of how to write English poetry, its relationship to grammar, line breaks, omission, the choice of appropriate words, and ways of increasing density. Reach the world through short English poetic forms. We also hope to help you understand writing English poetry, its relationship to grammar, line breaks, omission, appropriate word choice, and increasing density. Please register at the Yomiuri Shimbun/Nippon Television Cultural Center on the ninth floor of the Sogo department store at JR Yokohama Station. Contact: Sano.

9. Keep your dreams alive, inspired by the efforts of those around you

From admission screening to publication of works and assessment of research achievements, the Society always uses referees, allowing those seeking research careers to develop the corresponding judgment. Poetry gatherings, enjoyable trips, meals, and readings can also bring close friends with whom to reflect deeply on life. Poems can be set to music, opening a path as a lyricist. The pleasure of having one’s poems or fiction placed in a time capsule to be opened in 500 years also depends on everyone’s understanding and cooperation. If your work is outstanding, an opportunity for it to receive that treatment will surely come. Your efforts are assessed step by step; after passing through exacting stages, the prospect of eventual achievement is bright.