Kunikida Doppo's “Musashino”

Kunikida Doppo was an author of romantic novels, as well as journalist. His works were written in significant epoch in Japanese literary history, namely, the decline of Meiji Period. His novels appeared along with the works of Natsume Soseki, Tamaya Kakai. 

His novels are very mature, coherent, precise and well-structured. He was born in Choshi, his father belonged to samurai-class, his mother was a very warm-hearten woman, he studied English, he was very interested in politics and Western political systems, its constitutions, political and social structures. He was Baptized at the age of 21 and accepted Catholicism as a prime religion. English literature influenced his writings, especially William Wordsworth’s.

In 1892 he founded his own magazine, a year later he started teaching mathematics in English. He wrote literally about everything, he became a war reporter during the First Sino-Japanese War, he got married in 1895 – with Nabuko Sasaki, the marriage was not successful, it had a very traumatic causes, Doppo was deeply depressed, he started writing melancholic, romantic stories, his lyrical, romantic literature was musical, beautiful, with overwhelming, sadness, sorrow and anguish. He remarried in 1898. He died very young in 1908 at the age of 36 of tuberculosis. His literary movement was – naturalism.  Once he said something that reflected his inner soul;

“…I am not a happy man. Always I am tortured by life’s great questions and by my own overwhelming ambitions…”

In his works Doppo defined human conditions, features dark as matter and unknown as far fetched lands .

Doppo’s novel or rather short story called “Musashino” is a masterpiece of modern fiction, his literature genre is like a sketch, like a scheme or a map, he tells stories that go through continents and through various cultures, in “Musashino”- the reader meets Tokyo,  which differs from the city he used to know, he is distracted of its greatness,  the reader seems to be a bit lost, he doesn’t want to stay there;

“…we must leave out, because it is impossible to imagine what it must have been like in days of old when, now, it is filled with busy streets…”

His novels are full of sounds, the sounds are not pleasant to the eye, the sounds of war are frightening; 

“… boom of the noon gun…”

The war that is omnipresent in his novels is a sign of something much more important and profound than just a fight, it is a rebirth of an Imperial State, it is a birth of a new Japan – modern society.

“Musashino” tells the story of war, we read about the conflict just at the very beginning of the novel – the battle of Kotesashi at Musashi Province. The description of the place, its topography is very thorough,  the author is impressed by it diversity. The author is an observator, a watcher of the land, its weather, the weather conditions such as rain, heat, mist. 

Nature was very important tool of description, it was used to describe feelings and emotions. Shapes, colors, fragrance could at the same time describe a person, a thing, a notion. The author describes a very-well known places as if he had seen them for the first time,  his imagination and perception is immerse.

‘… Musashino was famous for its unique beauty of an endless plane, … but today it is nothing but woods, … until today the beauty of oaks, and other delicious trees…”

‘Delicious trees’ how lovely it sounds, the beauty of trees invites the author to admire it, to look closer with the naked eye and with the eye of imagination, because the image of trees is imaginary, mystique almost unreal.

‘…when I look at the distant mountain my heart is filled with yearning…”

His descriptions are very interesting, he uses variety sets of contradictions and contrasts by describing trees, woods, seasons. His characters reflect Japanese history but with a hint of romanticism Doppo borrowed from British romantic writers, mostly from – William Wordsworth.  Doppo was a writer of a new era, he belongs to new era, the fields of his interest such as English and Mathematics indicate how modern he became.

The language is an indispensable part of Doppo's literature, its an opaque, a key to understand the meaning, the language expresses the changes, reading Doppo’s novel one might have a feeling he reads a diary, a letter, a memories.

“…cold fog and cold dew, the songs of insects aloud. The whole world awakened…”

The novel is filled with metaphorical elements, the reader hears the letters, the words, he listens to the sounds, the overall atmosphere is very sensual, melancholic and  sophisticated. The end of the book is very descriptive, the author is walking with his friend, they see the Fuji Mt, big and profound, they talk, they whisper, they listen to the sounds of nature.