Ozaki Leaves Literature Study

Ozaki Koyo is one of the most famous writers in the modern Japanese literaturehistory. He started from Kanyusha and rose to fame in the mid-Meiji in the extremerightist trend among Europeanized. As the representative of the "intends classicalliterature," Ozaki Koyo and Koda Rohan ruled the latter half of the Meiji era. Becauseof them, that period in the Japanese literary history was also called “the era of Ko-Ro”.Ozaki Koyo’s work was famous for his unique and detailed description of females,especially character or mental description. He formed a new literature mode called theColloquial narrative mode.“Ninin bikuni:Irozange”“Sanninzuma”“Tajyo-takon”“The Golden Demon” are all representative works of this mode. This study will focuson Ozaki Koyo’s work and discusses the following questions.First, Ozaki Koyo’s work and the Japanese classical literatureOzaki Koyo’s work was recognized as “literature from the Genroku era inEuropean style” by the contemporaneous writers. And so far, most studies aboutOzaki Koyo only see the classic literature part in his work as a result of Edo literature.After a thorough examination of the previous studies and Ozaki Koyo ’s work, thisstudy come up with a topic that has never been studied before----infections fromclassical and ancient literature on Ozaki Koyo’s writing, including its materials, modeand themes.Second, Ozaki Koyo’s work and Chinese classical literatureLooking back, the connection between Ozaki Koyo’s work and Chinese classicalliterature has never been studied by anyone. This study analyzed Ozaki Koyo’s worksystematically and gathered a lot of concrete data. Then demonstrated the relationshipbetween Ozaki Koyo’s work and Chinese classical literature, which can be concernedas an innovative subject in Ozaki Koyo literature research. From this subject, thisstudy compared Ozaki Koyo’s novel “Nisegane”“Uzumagawa”with Chinese novelsand looked into their connections.Third, the sociological perspective interpretation of Ozaki Koyo Literature Most of Ozaki Koyo’s novels describe women by emotional events. He wrote thegame between the values of modern and pre-modern, making an inquiry of therelationship between emotion and material swayed by social status through theunvarying subject---love. In this sense, the famous work “The Golden Demon” byOzaki Koyo still holds a significance of re-understanding in today’s society. From theperspective of sociology, this study re-interpreted the protagonist Kanichi by placinghim on the context of age, explored writer’s reflection and criticism to social thoughtand social ethics hidden in the description of the fate of the characters in the novel.The idea of “The Golden Demon” comes from the American popular fiction.Ozaki Koyo placed the money and love problem in an oriental culture situation whichsocial ethics and family ethics were changing fast, re-created it and made it becomethe art source of an impact on the surrounding literature. On the basis of receptionaesthetics, the study of various forms of cultural acceptance of the novel "The GoldenDemon" in South Korea, mainland China and Taiwan perhaps can contribute to deepunderstanding of the social and cultural significance of the novel itself.Fourth, Ozaki Koyo’s literature and its war backgroundOzaki Koyo’s literary reached its heyday when the militaristic Japanesegovernment launched the Sino-Japanese War. By digging up materials and thecomparing him with literati related, this study shows us Ozaki’s understanding of thewar and discusses the potential to develop and the limitation of Ozaki Koyo as awriter.