Naoya Shinga

Naoya Shinga was an essayist and a writer, he was active during the Taisho and Showa periods. His father was a son of a samurai, later on he became a very prosperous banker, his family had an influence, was very wealthy. He moved frequently from place to place, the novels he wrote describe the settings, people, certain kind of behavior, his novels are picturesque. He was awarded the Order of Culture in 1949.

Naoya belongs to group of Japanese naturalists, they created “bundan” – a hermetic literary circle. In the novels they described the lives of poor and hopeless people, the stories were very dramatized, filled with poverty, the naturalistic approach was a contrast to other frequently introduced upper-class, the privileged one, filled with optimism. Naoya loved writing short stories, all of them consisted of various genres, fiction and sometimes non-fiction. The story and topics he depict are difficult, are hard, yet, he stubbornly continues to develop it, to sketch contrasts and outlines characters. His main theme is love, love unfulfilled and terminated by injustice and classes differences. He was in love with one of his maids – the love was forbidden, for sure, it influenced his writing, he got married later, however, he never loved as much and as honestly as he did the maid who had to leave his house. It was love of his lifetime. The affair caused a severe dispute between him and his father, the adultery was a crime in Japan. He missed his mother, the motherhood, he was just eleven years old when she died, she suffered a mental breakdown so severe she never recovered of. In his novels he idealizes the woman, he idealizes the theme of the mother, the mother – the angel, a mythical goodness, a shelter, a shield which keeps out of harm, protects and loves. The genre ‘I novel’ was a major representative of naturalism and naturalistic approach,  it was based on contemplation and a thorough observation of the nature. The novel “Takibi”, “Night Fires” are very picturesque it describe the rainbows, sunsets, sun-rays, colors, sounds, nature, its beauty and innocence. The nature and its colors shape the plot, the mountains which are cultivated and very symbolical in Japan plays are like tombstone. We have to remember that in rural Japan, non-industrialized, people believed in pagan beliefs, the forests and darkness symbolized evil forces, whereas animals stood for gods of evils, especially wolves, foxes. The modern Japan doesn't believe in a hoax, absolutely nothing can happen, there are no ghosts, no evil, any devil present. However – the pack of wolves itself is a threat, it ate a horse, it caused danger, it may not only attack domestic animals, but, people as well. So does the story goes … a tale how wolves were killed by the dynamite stuffed into the horse sounds incredible, sounds heroic, almost epic.

‘…in one week we wiped them out…’

Mountains represented symbol of prosperity and a place were divine creature hid from danger, thrived. Wolves, on the other hand, represented something that has been extinct for a long time, an abstract, yet, eerie notion. This perception of this animals was derived from the folk stories of pre-industrial Japan, wolves were worshiped, it all changed in nineteenth century when it was massively hunted,  according to many official documents – it caused too many damages to human habitat. In Japanese stories wolf always will be perceived as “man-hunter”, it must be terminated.