Memoirs, Diaries, and Personal Reflections From Meihi- Taisho Japan (1868-1926): A Selection Of, and Commentary Upon Literary Miscellanies of the kindai period

“One gets a strong sense that Marcus is drawn to the kindai bundan on a private level, that his connection to them is as personal as it is academic. His long-term fascination with the inner lives of celebrated personalities derives, we imagine, from his interest in existential concerns endemic to the modern human condition..;.And as we absorb this “literature of self-exploration and psychological complexity,” it becomes as personal to us as it is to Marcus.”
-W. Puck Brecher,
Associate Professor of Japanese
Washington State University

Introduction: Kindai Japan and the Empire of Words
 The Meiji Mission
 Bunmei Kaika
 Fukoku kyôhei
 Meiji Society and Citizenry
 Empire of Words: The Kindai Bundan
 Selfhood, Psychology, Memory
 On This Book
 Endnotes
Chapter 1: Kijin: On Eccentricity, Ineffectuality, and Failure in the Kindai Bundan
 On Eccentricity
 Writing From the Margins: on Japanese Eccentricity
 Tokugawa Japan and the Rise of Kijin Culture
 Meiji Kijin: Eccentricity for the Modern Era
 The Bundan and Its Inward Turn
 Situating Failure in Meiji Japan
 Psychopathology and the “Medicalization” of Eccentricity
 The Late-Meiji Bundan and the “Invention of Failure”
 The Fugûsha Figure in Memoirs of the Kindai Bundan
 Wanderers and Unexpected Callers
- The Vagabond
- The Pheasant
- Craig
 Roan
 Remembering Futabatei
 Mourning Futabatei
- Mori Ȏgai: Hasegawa Tatsunosuke
- Natsume Sôseki: Hasegawa and I
- Shimazaki Tôson: Mourning Futabatei
 Conclusion
 Endnotes
Chapter 2: Telling Ailments: Kindai Writers and the Diseased State
 Doctors and Disease in Tokugawa Japan
 Meiji Medical Science
 Mori Ȏgai and the Restoration of the Jui Class
 The Convalescent Attitude: On Illness and Enlightenment
- Shiki
- Sôseki
-On Living Inside a Broken Body
-On Living Inside a Broken Society
-On Illness, Memory, and Medication
-The Sickbed Sanctuary
 Conclusion
 Endnotes
Chapter 3: Life Lessons: Shimazaki Toson and the Re-Collected Self
 Shimazaki Tôson: A Literary Life
- The Early Years
- Education
- The Young Romantic
- The Personal Turn
- The Mature Years
- Furusato: Returning Home
- Final Years
 The Re-Collected Selves of Shimazaki Toson
- Fictions of Self
- Kansôbun: Impressions and Observations
- Tales for Young People
- Recounting the France Sojourn for Young People
- The France Sojourn for Adult Readers
- Tales of Furusato and the Move to Tokyo
- Chikaramochi
- Raisuke
-The Megane Account
-The Chikaramochi Account
- The World of the Father
 The Tôson Legacy
 Endnotes
Chapter 4: War of Words: Russo-Japanese War on the Literary Front
 The War With Russia
 Bushidô Redux
 Swords and Pens of War
 Heiminsha
 Futabatei
 Wars in Translation: Futabatei, Russian Literature, and the Bundan
 The Compunctious Idealist
 Wars With Numbers
 Endnotes
Chapter 5: I Am Not a Cat: Natsume Sôseki and His Umpampered Pets
 On Pets and Modernity
 Tales of the Natsume Pets
- The Java Sparrow
 The Dog as Antihero
- Hector
 The Natsume Cats
- The Cat’s Grave
- The Cat’s Recovery
 Sôseki’s Pets and the Domestic Space
 Endnotes
Chapter 6: The Dyspeptic Diarist: Reading Into the Sôseki Nikki
 Classical and Premodern Diaries in Japan
 Kindai Diaries and the Modern Temper
 Reading Into the Sôseki Nikki
- 1909
- 1911
- A Daughter’s Cremation
- 1914
-The Spiteful Householder
 Conclusion: How to Read the Sôseki Nikki
 Endnotes
Postscript: Closing the Book on Kindai Literature
 Books and Bibliophiles
 Uchida Roan and the Bibliophile Essay
 Bibliocide: On Books in Harm’s Way
 Closing This Book
 Endnotes
Selected Bibliography
Index

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