Writing Technology in Meiji Japan: A Media History of Modern Japanese Literature and Visual Culture

320 Pages·2016·38.877 MB·English

by  Seth Jacobowitz

Writing Technology in Meiji Japan
Harvard East Asian Monographs 387

Writing Technology in Meiji Japan
A Media History of Modern Japa nese Literature
and Visual Culture
Seth Jacobowitz
Published by the Harvard University Asia Center
Distributed by Harvard University Press
Cambridge (Massachusetts) and London 2015
© 2015 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College
Printed in the United States of America
Th e Harvard University Asia Center publishes a monograph series and, in coordination with the
Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, the Korea Institute, the Reischauer Institute of Japa nese
Studies, and other faculties and institutes, administers research projects designed to further
scholarly understanding of China, Japan, Vietnam, Korea, and other Asian countries. Th e Center
also sponsors projects addressing multidisciplinary and regional issues in Asia.
Th is book was published with the assistance of the Frederick W. Hilles Publication Fund of
Yale University.
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Jacobowitz, Seth.
Writing technology in Meiji Japan : a media history / Seth Jacobowitz.
pages cm. — (Harvard East Asian monographs ; 387)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Summary: “Boldly rethinks the origins of modern Japa nese language, literature, and visual
culture from the perspective of media history. Th is book represents the fi rst systematic study
of the ways in which media and inscriptive technologies available in Japan at its threshold of
modernization in the late 19th to early 20th century shaped and brought into being modern
Japa nese literature”— Provided by publisher.
ISBN 978-0-674-08841-2 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Japa nese literature—1868—
History and criticism. 2. Literature and technology— Japan— History—19th century.
3. Literature and technology— Japan— History—20th century. 4. Literature and society—
Japan— History—19th century. 5. Literature and society— Japan— History—20th
century. 6. Pop u lar culture— Japan— History—19th century. 7. Pop u lar culture— Japan—
History—20th century. 8. Mass media and culture— Japan— History—19th
century. 9. Mass media and culture— Japan— History—20th century. I. Title.
PL726.6.J33 2015
302.230952— dc23
2015005307
Index by Mary Mortensen
Printed on acid- free paper
Last fi gure below indicates year of this printing
25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16
Contents
List of Figures vii
Ac know ledg ments xi
Introduction 1
Balloon Ride 1
Systems of Writing Th ings Down 7
Th e Paper Trail 10
Part I: Discourse Networks of Meiji Japan
1 Standardizing Measures 19
Standing- Reserve 19
Standards and Conventions 25
2 Telegraph and Post 43
Maejima Hisoka 43
Instant Messaging 48
Secret Correspondences 56
3 Wiring Meiji Japan: From Hokusai’s Postcard to
Mokuami’s Telegraph 65
Th e Postcard that Goes Undelivered 66
Telegraphing the Imagined Community from Yasukuni Shrine 79
vi Contents
Part II: Scripting National Language
4 Japa nese in Plain En glish 97
Mori Arinori and the Anglophone Roots of Modern Japa nese 101
Nishi Amane’s Case for Romanization 110
5 Phonetic Shorthand 116
Phonography and Verbal Photography 118
Hooked on Phonics 126
6 Parsing Visible Speech 143
Alexander Melville Bell and the Human Speaking Machine 144
Isawa Shūji and Imperial Linguistics 152
Part III: “Writing Things Down Just as They Are”
7 Regime Change 171
Utsushi: Between Calligraphy and Photography 172
Hanashi: Constellations of Speech 177
True History, Duly Noted: Yano’s Po liti cal Novel Illustrious
Statesmen of Th ebes 185
8 Th e Haunted Origins of Modern Japa nese Literature 195
Th e Transcriptive Realism of Sanyūtei Enchō’s
Th e Peony Lantern 195
Th e Transparency of the Novel 208
Part IV: The Limits of Realism
9 Masaoka Shiki’s Scribblings 227
Th e Statistical Death of Japanese Poetry 230
Sketching from Life 243
10 Scratching Rec ords with Sōseki’s Cat 250
Feline Amanuensis 250
Th e Discourse of Noses 261
Bibliography 273
Index 287
Figures
0.1 Baisotei Gengyo, Shashinkyō fūsenzu (Camera: A hot
air balloon picture) 2
1.1 Calendar and clock time from Meiji kunen taiyō ryakureki
(Solar calendar chart), 1876 35
1.2 Kobayashi Kiyochika’s po liti cal cartoon from Maru
Maru Chinbun, 1886 37
2.1 Chappe’s Semaphore Telegraph, c. 1792 49
2.2 Sumiike Kuroteibō, picture postcard Himitsu tsūshin
(Secret correspondence), 1902 57
2.3 Heiwa kinen (Peace memorial) postcard, 1919 63
3.1 Matsumoto Shōun, Sukiyabashi fukin (In the vicinity
of Sukiyabashi), 1902 67
3.2 Katsushika Hokusai, Shunshū Ejiri from Th irty- Six Views
of Mount Fuji, c. 1830 70
3.3 Katsushika Hokusai, Shimosa Sekiya sato no yūdachi
(Eve ning shower at the village of Sekiya in Shimosa)
from the Manga, c. 1814 74
3.4 Katsushika Hokusai, “Kaze” (wind) detail from
the Manga, c. 1814 74
3.5 Katsushika Hokusai, Detail from untitled drawing
from the Manga, c. 1814 75
viii Figures
3.6 Katsushika Hokusai, “Chōkyūka” from the Manga, c. 1814 76
3.7 Kobayashi Kiyochika’s Hakone sanchū yori Fugaku chōbō
(Distant view of Mount Fuji from the Hakone
Mountains), 1877 80
5.1 Sound chart from Isaac Pitman’s Phonography, 1888 121
5.2 Isaac Pitman’s Fonetic Nuz, January 6, 1849 122
5.3 Title page to Takusari Kōki’s Shinshiki sokkijutsu
(New system of shorthand), 1904 128
5.4 Cover art for Maruyama Heijirō’s Kotoba no shashinhō
(Photographic method for words), 1886 129
5.5 Sound chart for Maruyama Heijirō’s Kotoba no
shashinhō, 1886 131
5.6 Near and Far Eastern scripts from Yano Ryūkei’s Nihon
buntai moji shinron (New theory of Japa nese style and
script), 1886 137
6.1 Title Page to Alexander Melville Bell’s Visible
Speech, 1867 146
6.2 “Complete Table of Letters” sound chart from
Visible Speech, 1867 149
6.3 “Interjectional Exercises” sound chart from Visible Speech 150
6.4 Letter from Alexander Melville Bell to Isawa Shūji, 1903 155
6.5 Sound chart to Isawa Shūji’s Shiwahō (Visible
speech), 1901 162
6.6 Preface to Isawa Shūji’s Shiwahō, 1901 163
7.1 Cover art of Chōrin Hakuen’s Nasake sekai mawari
dōrō (Revolving lantern of the sentimental world), 1886 184
7.2 Illustration from Nasake sekai mawari dōrō, 1886 185
7.3 Postscript to Keikoku bidan (Illustrious statesmen of
Th ebes) in three scripts, 1884 192
8.1 Cover of Kaidan botan dōrō (Ghost story of the peony
lantern), 1884 200
8.2 Advertisement with shorthand script in the fi rst edition
of Kaidan botan dōrō, 1884 202
Figures ix
8.3 Illustration from Ukigumo (Floating clouds), 1886 211
9.1 Akaseki Sadakura’s photograph of Masaoka Shiki,
April 1901 248
10.1 Hachiguchi Goyō’s illustration from the fi rst edition
of Wagahai wa neko de aru (I am a cat), 1905 256