Volume 2: 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 2 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 2 — Living in This World

The Volume of Life in the Present

What do people today think about? What do they rely on to sustain their lives? In an age overflowing with material goods, yesterday's treasures become today's rubbish. Human values themselves turn into rubbish, and people come to the end of their lives through physical 'death' without grasping where happiness lies amid truth and falsehood, or understanding what truly has value. Under these circumstances, the devastation of nuclear war remains a threat, just as in earlier times.

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. Now, as Heisei gives way to Reiwa, ways of life change, thoughts change, and a tendency grows for people to live as they please within different networks of relationships. Without such upheavals as wars or runs on banks, recording an era is difficult in its own way. Nevertheless, events such as the bubble years, the great tsunami and the hosting of the Olympics have brought many changes of feeling. We look forward to poetry with wit and spirit. Poems in English are welcome.

Stories

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

In an age when fiction between literary and popular writing, and mysteries, are in fashion, computer-generated imagery is all the rage in visual media. Fast-paced work incorporating photogenic scenes also belongs to the present day. Yet the human ego embodied in fiction is more unsightly than in wartime. Japanese people, with their needs for food, clothing and shelter satisfied, act ever more selfishly, while the fine tradition of consideration for others is lamentably thinner than in the postwar years of reconstruction. Portray this as it is.

Criticism

Original work by members, chiefly literary criticism.

As civilization becomes overripe, aspirations and values decline. Fewer people devote themselves to scholarship in pursuit of a noble way of life or seek the ideals that people of earlier times pursued. People have lost the core of their values, and this affects not only politics and economics but their very outlook on life. Arguments informed by knowledge, comparing visual works or developments overseas, could provide material of reference for later generations.

Essay

Original essays by members.

Essays, too, will tend towards discussion of civilization, and the writer's insight will be tested. The phenomena of the present do not stand in simple contrast to those of wartime, and their shadowed aspects carry ambiguities of meaning. Yet the subtleties of people's feelings mirror how life is lived in this age, and many aspects of society should make engaging reading. Natural phenomena and international affairs are also suitable subjects. With the writer's discerning eye, we can look forward to work that rewards close reading.

Thesis

Please follow the separately stated requirements for research papers.

In this age, research papers must not end as timid studies of tiny details. Their subjects need not be limited to literary works: they may make astonishing advances in the humanities, and scientific papers, too, should be able to speak to readers 500 years from now. Much depends on the relevance and precision of the reference material.