Volume 1: Original Introduction and Editorial Guidance

English translation

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

Originally published: 2020-01-13

This introduction to Volume 1 and its editorial guidance for five genres were published in 2020. Invitations to submit work, length limits and research-paper requirements are preserved as statements from that time and are distinct from current submission guidelines.

Volume 1 — After the Fighting

The Volume of Days Gone By

When Japan ended its policy of national seclusion and looked out upon the world, its people were appalled to find three-quarters of it turned into colonies of Western powers. Japan pursued national wealth and military strength, and, under the principle of a Japanese spirit with Western learning, experienced wars with China, Russia, China again, and the United States. It was truly a succession of misfortune and unhappiness. In Volume 1, we wish to express and record the forms taken by the thoughts and feelings of those who experienced these times firsthand.

Poems

We welcome tanka, haiku, song lyrics, short poems, poems in English and other forms. Even an enka style is welcome, provided the work expresses social conditions that symbolize its era. In the early Meiji years, amid the enormous upheaval of the Restoration, enka sang of society and despair, becoming records of the age. We look forward to elegies such as 晶子's 「君死に給ふ」 and 真下飛泉's 「戦友」, and poetry filled with feelings concerning Manchuria or otherwise appropriate to this Academia. Poems in English are welcome.

Stories

Original work by members. Please keep it to approximately 8,000 Japanese characters at most.

Here, too, please choose themes that reflect society or convey the human feelings, customs and ways of life of the time in a way that will move later readers. How do works from the Meiji and Taisho periods look when read by the Reiwa generation? We want work that goes beyond merely sharing Romantic passion, sorrow and joy to discern the grief hidden behind them.

Criticism

From the Meiji and Taisho periods through the end of the war in Showa, Japanese people had to live under the ideological control of the authorities and the military. Unless we recognize this, we cannot grasp what the last letters of special-attack pilots were truly trying to convey. Subjects need not be confined to literary criticism; they may include visual media, social conditions, international comparison, war, disaster, values, information and transport.

Essay

Original essays by members.

An essay differs from a mere statement of impressions. The writer's insight is tested. What matters is less the amount of knowledge possessed than how things are seen. Writing produced by a discerning eye is interesting to read. An eye for society, natural phenomena or international affairs is welcome: the writer's powers of discernment make a work worth reading. This is not an easy genre, and it provides a good opportunity to demonstrate one's ability with the pen.

Thesis

Please follow the separately stated requirements for research papers.

Some academic societies publish papers so absurd that one is moved to ask whether they can really be called literary scholarship. Scholars who think that painstaking logical development or meticulous reference material is enough are not, in the true sense, people of literature. They are merely enthusiasts obsessed with details. The Romanticism Academia will not accept research papers whose sole accomplishment is the accumulation of data. Such papers ignore Romanticism: a sensory, feeling-based sensibility rather than a matter of logic.