15
sales. Later, men recalled that its appearance shook the intelligentsia as few books before or since.
Most of the definitions of the functions of the novel and the suggestions for its improvement enunciated by Tsubouchi in The Essence of the Novel may be traced to his readings in Western literature and criticism. What gave the book its great authority, however, was his practice of referring each statement to instances drawn from the Japanese literature of the preceding fifty years. Although he quoted European authorities, it was clear that he took nothing on faith. Each quotation was considered in the light of its implications for Japanese writing. He distinguished two categories of novels, the didactic and the artistic. To the former category he assigned all Japanese novels of recent years, not only those with a moralistic intent, but even the books of gossip of the licensed quarters, which had the effect of holding up to ridicule the mores of the day. Tsubouchi insisted that the so-called didactic works lacked any genuine moral character. “It has long been the custom in Japan to consider the novel as an instrument of education, and it has frequently been proclaimed that the novel’s chief function is the castigation of vice and the encouragement of virtue. In actual practice, however, only stories of
