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of illustrating the significance of Futon by comparing the narrative techniques of Katai to those of Kōyō. In the ensuing passages Kōyō describes his principal character's (Kwanichi) mental state after he has lost the woman he loves (Miya) to a man of wealth.
Being left alone in the wide, wide world, with no ties of kindred, and without meeting affection, Kwanichi was like a lonely stone in a wilderness not even haunted by beast or bird. The happiness he experienced, whilst living at the Shigisawa's, from the tender love of Miya, had been the cause of his seeking no other pleasures. His love for Miya was not like the usual love of a youth for a maiden; Miya was to him what the manifold ties of a family are to others, she represented the love of parents, sisters and brothers; she was indeed all in all to the poor Kwanichi; not merely love's young dream, but the substance of what the love of a united family would be. He had regarded her as his wife, and the lonely stone in the wilderness had gradually become warm under her genial influence. We can imagine then, under these conditions, what his feelings were, when he was robbed of his only treasure, when the girl to whom he had poured forth his whole heart, whom he had trusted as himself, to whom he had been faithful even in every thought, was untrue to him, deserting him and marrying another, leaving him stripped of everything and hopeless for the future.
He had now, not only the old loneliness of having not a tie in the world, but his heart was full of resentment and disappointment. The lonely stone was now covered with frost, the biting wind flew over it, the bitterness of his life had entered into the very marrow of his bones. Since Miya had been taken from him there was nothing left for him to live for.[1]
As can be seen from the above passages the narrative technique of Kōyō is that of a storyteller. He is totally detached from his story and describes the feelings of his principal character with elegant diction written in the pseudo-classical style of the late Edo period. In marked contrast to Kōyō's literary diction, Katai uses a colloquial style throughout his story. Katai, like Kōyō, primarily depicts his characters in the third person, but the difference between Katai's and
- ↑ Ozaki Kōyō, The Gold Demon, trans. by A. and M. Lloyd, (Tokyo: Yūrakusha, 1905), pp. 207–08.
