The Autobiographical Narrative in Modern Japan: A Study of Kasai Zenzo, a Shi-Shosetsu Writer Book

This study offers both a chronological description of the literary career of Kasai Zenzo (1887-1928) and an historical examination of shi-shosetsu (a Japanese autobiographical/confessional literary genre) during and after his lifetime. This work should appeal to scholars interested in Japanese literature and the genre of autobiography. Zenzo was one of the most important shi-shosetsu authors, living in the Taisho Period (1912-1926) in which this genre was in the height of its ascendancy. In shi-shosetsu, the "I" novel, the author recounts details of his or her personal life with only a thin veneer of fiction. This genre was believed to be an ideal form of prose writing and an expression of individual depth, created without the fabrications normally found in conventional fiction, making it one of the most striking features of modern Japanese literature. Kasai, living his entire life in poverty, turned to Zen Buddhism for spiritual solace and became both a major architect of the Taisho shi-shosetsu and its defining author.Read More