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It was during this distressing mental state that Katai was asked to write a novel for a literary magazine, Shin Shōsetsu. Katai thought that he must write something that would be recognized in literary circles. This thought constantly occupied his mind even while he was walking on the road, but his intentions did not produce any worthwhile writing. He was disappointed and very irritated, but at last a decision was reached as stated in Katai's essay "My Anna Mahr":
It was about that time that I was deeply stirred by Gerhart Hauptmann's Einsame Menschen. The loneliness of Vockerat seemed to resemble my own state of mind. Besides, both with regard to my family and with regard to my work, I had to break the existing patterns and open up new roads. Fortunately I had acquired the new foreign trends of thought--especially those of Europe--distorted though they may have been, from my voluminous reading. I had the feeling that the shape of fin de siecle suffering was clearly revealed even in the thoughts of Tolstoy, Ibsen, Strindberg, and Nietzsche. I, too, wanted to walk a hard road. I determined to fight courageously not only with society but also with myself. I thought I would like to bring out into the open things which I had kept hidden, things I had covered over, even things which might destroy my own soul were I to disclose them.
I determined to put into writing my own "Anna Mahr" who had been causing me anguish since two or three years earlier--the spring before the Russo–Japanese War began.[1]
Based on the foregoing statements of Katai, it can now be seen that Katai's motive for writing Futon was to fulfill his literary aspiration to write something of value that would advance his stature to that of those acknowledged writers such as Tōson and Doppo. In addition to this factor, Katai felt that the time was now ripe "to break the existing patterns and open up new roads" in Japanese literature, which he had advocated doing since 1901 in his essay No no Hana, which was inspired by the works of European naturalists. Finally he clearly sees what, in his opinion, is to be desired from a writer.
- ↑ Tayama Katai, "My Anna Mahr," op. cit., p. 347.
