Mori_Ōgai

Mori Ōgai

; (17 February, 1862–8 July, 1922) was a Japanese physician, translator, novelist and poet. Gan (1911–13, The Wild Geese) is considered his major work.

Biography

Early life

Mori was born as Mori Rintarō in Tsuwano, Iwami province (present-day Shimane prefecture). His family were hereditary physicians to the daimyo of the Tsuwano Domain. As the eldest son, it was assumed that he would carry on the family tradition; therefore he was sent to attend classes in the Confucian classics at the domain academy, and took private lessons in rangaku, and in the Dutch language.

In 1872, after the abolition of the domains, the Mori family relocated to Tokyo. Mori stayed at the residence of Nishi Amane, in order to receive tutoring in the German language, which was the primary language for medical education at the time. In 1874, he was admitted to the government medical school (the predecessor for Tokyo Imperial University's Medical School), and graduated in 1881 at the age of 19, the youngest person ever to be awarded with a medical license in Japan. It was also during this time that he developed an interest in literature, reading extensively from the late-Edo period popular novels, and taking lessons in Chinese poetry and literature.

Early career

After graduation, Mori enlisted in the Imperial Japanese Army as a medical officer, hoping to specialize in military medicine and hygiene.

Mori was sent by the Army to study in Germany (Leipzig, Dresden, Munich, and Berlin) from 1884–1888. During this time, he also developed an interest in European literature. As a matter of trivia, Mori Ōgai is the first Japanese known to have ridden on the Orient Express.

Upon his return to Japan, he assumed a high rank as a medical doctor in the Japanese army and pushed for a more scientific approach to medical research, even publishing a medical journal out of his own funds.

Meanwhile, he also attempted to revitalize modern Japanese literature and published his own literary journal (Shigarami sōshi, 1889–1894) and his own book of poetry (Omokage, 1889). In his writings, he was an “anti-realist”, asserting that literature should reflect the emotional and spiritual domain. Maihime (舞姫, The Dancing Girl, 1890) described an affair between a Japanese man and a German woman.

In 1899, he married Akamatsu Toshiko, daughter of Admiral Akamatsu Noriyoshi, a close friend of Nishi Amane. He divorced her the following year under acrimonious circumstances that irreparably ended his friendship with Nishi.

Later career

At the start of the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895, Mori was sent to Manchuria and, the following year, to Taiwan. In 1899, he was appointed head of the Army Medical Corps and was based in Kokura, Kyūshū. In 1902, he was reassigned to Tokyo.

During the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, he was again sent to Manchuria. He later came under criticism for his stubborn refusal to believe that beriberi was not an infectious disease but an ailment caused by thiamine deficiency, despite evidence presented by Takaki Kanehiro of the Imperial Japanese Navy. His questionable decisions led to the death of 27,000 Japanese soldiers to beriberi, compared to 47,000 deaths from combat.

In 1907, Mori was promoted to Army Surgeon-General, the highest post within the Japanese medical corps. On his retirement in 1916 he was appointed director of the Imperial Museum.

Literary career

Although Mori did little writing from 1892–1902, he continued to edit a literary journal (Mezamashi gusa, 1892–1909). He also produced translations of the works of Goethe, Schiller, Ibsen, Hans Christian Andersen, and Hauptmann.

It was during the Russo-Japanese War (1904–05) that Mori started keeping a poetic diary. After the war, he began holding tanka writing parties that included several noted poets such as Yosano Akiko.

His later works can be divided into three separate periods. From 1909–1912, he wrote mostly fiction based on his own experiences. This period includes Vita Sexualis, and his most popular novel, Gan (1911–13; The Wild Geese), which is set in 1881 Tokyo and was filmed by Shiro Toyoda in 1953 as The Mistress.

From 1912–1916, he wrote mostly historical stories. Deeply affected by the seppuku of General Nogi Maresuke in 1912, he explored the impulses of self-destruction, self–sacrifice and patriotic sentiment. This period includes Sanshō Dayū (山椒大夫), and Takasebune (高瀬舟).

From 1916, he turned his attention to biographies of late Edo period doctors.

Legacy

As an author, Mori is considered one of the leading writers of the Meiji period. In his literary journals, he instituted modern literary criticism in Japan, based on the aesthetic theories of Karl von Hartmann.

A house which Mori lived in is preserved in Kokura Kita ward in Kitakyushu, not far from Kokura station. Here he wrote Kokura Nikki (Kokura diary). His birthhouse is also preserved in Tsuwano. The two one-story houses are remarkably similar in size and in their traditional Japanese style.

One of Mori's daughters, Mori Mari, influenced the Yaoi movement in contemporary Japanese literature.

Selected works

Maihime (1890, 舞姫 The Dancing Girl)
Utakata no ki (1890, うたかたの記 Foam on the Waves)
Fumizukai (1891, 文づかひ The Courier)
Wita sekusuarisu (1909, ヰタ・セクスアリス Vita Sexualis)
Seinen (1910, 青年 Young Men)
Gan (1911–13, 雁 The Wild Geese)
Okitsu Yagoemon no isho (1912, 興津弥五右衛門の遺書 The Last Testament of Okitsu Yagoemon)
Sanshō Dayū (1915, 山椒大夫 Sanshō the Steward)
Takasebune (1916, 高瀬舟 The Boat on the Takase River)
Shibue Chūsai (1916, 渋江抽斎 Shibue Chusai)

Translations

The Historical Fiction of Mori Ôgai, ed. David A. Dilworth and J. Thomas Rimer. 1977. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1991. A one-volume paperback edition of an earlier two-volume collection of stories.
Modern Japanese Stories: An Anthology, ed. Ivan Morris. 1961. Rutland, Vt.: Charles E. Tuttle, 1966. Contains "Under Reconstruction."
Sansho-Dayu and Other Short Stories, trans. Tsutomu Fukuda. Tokyo: Hokuseido Press, 1970.
Vita Sexualis, trans. Kazuji Ninomiya and Sanford Goldstein. 1972. Boston: Tuttle Publishing, 200.
The Wild Geese, trans. Ochiai Kingo and Sanford Goldstein. Boston: Tuttle Publishing, 1959.
The Wild Goose, trans. Burton Watson. 1995. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Center for Japanese Studies, 1998.
Youth and Other Stories (collection of stories), ed. J. Thomas Rimer. 1994. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1995