CopyRight YANABU Akira
CopyRight YANABU Akira
RD ίγikindai, modernj
|kindai is a hell, kindai is an admiration
In 1943, during the 2nd world war, in the magazine "Bungakkai * (the literary world)" for September and October, the famous table talk titled 'Conquest of kindai (ίγ)' was reported. Talking members were Kawakami Tetsutarou * , Hayashi Fusao * , Kobayashi Hideo * , Shimomura Toratarou * and so on who were celebrated in the press of that time. These opinions were recorded there, for instance Kamei Katsuichirou *
said:
kindai I have felt ought to be said in short, just the confusion itself I have experienced for ten and several years. Since the Meiji era, our kindai we have felt may have been a Hell.
Against this, from the contrary viewpoint, Nakamura Mitsuo # said:
I, as an amateur think of kindai, so far the Western kindai has seemed to me somehow very great,c continuously purchasing something new, such a sort of spirit may have been an essence of
kindai. We may say the true kindai came to Japan for the first time today.
That a word is accepted being colored and valued as good or bad, it is an important feature of translating word in Japan. Speeches cited above were recorded about half a century before, fundamental circumstances seem to be however not so different even nowadays, for instance today we may be able to understand that kindai is a hell, and also kindai is somehow very great.
That a word is accepted colored and valued as good or bad can be thought to show that it is not used well as the instrument of person, but on the contrary it manages or controls its user in some sense. One who think kindai to be a confusion and a hell will hate the entity named kindai before considering it calmly, on the other hand one who think it somehow very great will at first admire it before thinking calmly. And when one hate or admire a word, she/he does not manage it, she/he is rather controlled by the word conversely. The more one let it colored and valued, the more she/he is lead about by it.
These circumstances are not restricted to kindai, but in case of shakai, kojin and others as well, namely they are the fundamental features of the translating words in Japan.
Considering the history of the translating words, I will not take the way purchasing only the meanings of dictionaries, regarding them as entirely the issue of language. I will think of the language as the cultural matter and in the relation with persons and their lives. I will think it crucial that the language controls its users.
For example, kindai has been used since about a century ago, but as translating words for modern, kinsei (ί’, modern age) and so on other than kindai were also used then, I dare to pay attention here to kindai however, not to kinsei etc., because kindai has been apt to lead people astray as having seen in the table talk 'Conquest of kindai'. The reason why a word is hated or admired does not come out of usual meaning or meaning in dictionary, so far linguists proper accordingly have not taken account of this reason. I think this matter is of quite importance as issue of language and of sciences, ideas and culture in general.
In this book I will make much of the viewpoint above, that is to say the problem of the valuation attached meaning of words. And it can be analyzed, as I will expound below, from the side of phenomena, namely, the abuse or fashion of particular words, the conflict of the surface meaning of words or extra ordinary multivocal meanings of some words.
Seeing it on the contrary side, translating words kindai and so forth could have, through being abused and being in fashion thus, come into existence as the translating words.
Adding to my viewpoint mentioned above, I will explain here the fundamental method in this book on analyzing the circumstances of realization of translating words.
Not dividing both the surface form of words (how they are spoken or written) and the inner contents of words (what they mean), I will treat them as one set. For instance, I will not take such a widely employed method as dealing with the consciousness of kindai or arguing kindaisei (modernity) on some writing, in spite of being no word of kindai in the writing. And once being used the word kindai conversely, I will not reject it saying this word does not kindai proper.
And this might seem to be contrary to the common sense in general, I will not regard an instance of kindai as its meaning is equivalent to modern, at least I will not unconditionally presuppose such an attitude,because the surface forms of ίγ (kindai) and modern are different each other. This manner is particularly important when dealing with the issues of translating words and their original words.
Finally, when thinking of the meaning of a word I will not regard the etymology of the word so important, I will rather chiefly think of the functions of the word in the context in widely sense, in a time and in a language system.
Quite simply I have explained above the point of my method, which can be said in a word structuralistic method.
When we think of the history of the word kindai as what is called the issue of etymology, we ought to research for instances in Chinese classics, but as I put above, I will not get into this issue.
Let us consult dictionaries; in "Dai kanwa jiten"*, kindai is simply explained:
near time, these days, recent days, kinsei (modern age).
And instances from Chinese classics etc. follow on.
In "Koujien" #:
(1) recent days, nowadays, (2) (modern age) one of periodization of history. Equivalent to kinsei in a wide sense, and generally saying, capitalism society following feudalism society. In Japanese history, from the Meiji Restoration till the end of the Pacific War, by common opinion.
Referring to them, being through with once the traditional meaning of kindai of "Dai kanwa jiten" and of "Kojien" (1), the meaning of "Koujien" (2) has began since some period, which was 'one of periodization of history'.
And then, we will consult the original meaning of kindai, the English word modern; in 'Oxford English Dictionary', modern derived from Latin modernus in 6th century, meant 'just now', and the English adjective modern is explained as:
1. now existing.
2. Of our pertaining to the present and recent times, as distinguished remote past; pertaining to or originating in the current age or period. In historical use commonly applied (in contradistinction to ancient or medieval) to the times subsequent to the Middle Ages, and the events, personages, writers, etc. of that time.
And after each of (1),(2), instances since 6th c. are quoted.
This modern, we translated since the Meiji era as kindai. We can understand the meaning before translation of kindai was common to modern to some extent. But their difference is clear too, namely the meaning described in the latter part of modern (2), the periodization of history. This seems to be the meaning which the translating word kindai newly became to have, and it also seems to correspond to the description in "Koujien" (2). Let us research into more closely however,first the meaning of modern as the periodization of history is, being mentioned in OED, the periodization which distinguishes the times after the Renaissance from the Middle Ages. On the other hand, the periodization in "Koujien" (2) is still later period, and not written in OED, there is another periodization use of modern which distinguishes the ages after the bourgeois revolutions in 18,9 centuries from the preceding ages. Anyhow, this latter is the period in Western history, and the former in "Koujien " (2) is in Japanese history, then the correspondence of these two is not so clear.
Maybe more important problem is, different from the case of modern, the meaning as periodization of kindai began by far later than the period when this kindai meant, which was after the 1950's as I will explain below. Being written in "Koujien " 'In Japanese history, from the Meiji Restoration till the end of the Pacific War by common opinion,' this 'common opinion' should be said to be established only about ten years after 'the end of the Pacific War.'
And then, how had been the meaning of the translating word kindai before that time? The appearance of the translating word kindai was, as I will put it below, in about the year 1890. Since that time during about half a century, the meaning of our translating word kindai had been, having the meaning of historical periodization somehow or other, amazingly vague however, and the instances of this meaning had been quite seldom.
Then, how is its meaning? The meaning of translating word from modern is, as long as we think it directly through dictionaries and so on, that of periodization. This translating word kindai has been used however, as of other meaning than the periodization for over half a century since its appearance. In this seemingly contradictory phenomenon there is just the crucial feature of the translating word in Japan.
The translating word kindai, which was once translated from modern or other equivalent meaning of Western words, had the meaning of seemingly 'one of the periodization of history'. In my opinion however, it was only on the surface, that is, translating kindai had the meaning other than the periodization of history, and also other than its Chinese character's traditional meaning, it was, so to speak a reverse side meaning.
For example, as I quoted in the beginning of this chapter, kindai which is 'a hell' or 'somewhat very great' is so. 'One of periodization of history' ought not be good or bad. Kindai which is hated or admired, kindai which is necessary accompanied valuation, it can be said to be the appearance of the reverse side meaning of the translating word kindai.
In "The new Japanese history" by a famous historian Ienaga Saburo *
(1949, Fuzanbo Bookstore),the whole history was divided four period, these were the ancient times, the middle ages, kinsei (the recent times) and the present age. In the fourth volume of this book, chapter 1 of the present age was titled 'The birth of kindai Japan', and in the same volume chapter 5 was titled 'The progress of kindai industry and the change of society'. Here kinsei and kindai were apparently distinguished. The formal technical term of the period of history was kinsei, not kindai, then, what did kindai mean? It surely meant somehow a period, but some different meaning might have been in it too. Another example more, a historian Uehara Senryoku described in the postscript dated 1955 of his book "An introduction to science of history" (Taihodo Bookstore), as follows:
European history is usually divided into three period, the ancient times, the middle ages and kinsei (the present age), and for instance, a scholar is going to study European middle ages. Not only in European history, but in Eastern and Japanese history
dividing history into periods of the ancient times, middle ages and kinsei, one is going to study Eastern kindai, and another is going to study Japanese ancient times, thus their special domains are decided.
Here the formal technical term of periodization was kinsei, but on the other hand kindai was also used. In this writing kinsei was always used as the formal term of the period, while kindai was used as idioms such as 'European kindai', kindai culture' and 'kindai science'. What did kindai in such context mean? If we ask historians, they may be not able to answer well. It meant a period in history somehow, but vaguely, and maybe used with words, culture, science and Europe etc.
Such kindai is an appearance of kindai in which its surface meaning and its reverse side meaning coexisted as I explained in the preceding section. The surface meaning is of course the one of periods in history, and the reverse side meaning might relate to Europe, culture, science and industry. This surface meaning belongs to the special lines of historians, the reverse side meaning seemed however beyond their lines. In order to know the reality of the coexistence of the surface and the reverse meaning, I must research further into the history of the translating word kindai.
When we study the history of the word kindai, mixing with it there appears the word kinsei as I explained above. Both have begun to be used translating modern or other equivalent meaning of Western words since the Meiji era. At the beginning however, chiefly used was rather kinsei, for example, in "Eiwa taiyaku shuchin jisho (English-Japanese translation portable dictionary)" mentioned in chapter 1, modern was rendered as 'touji no * (those days), chikagoro no * (these days), kinrai no * (recently)', and no kindai and no kinsei were there, and soon, in "Sokai eiwa daijiten * (General dictionary of English-Japanese on bilingual principles)", modern was translated as:
kinji no * (these days), kinsei no * , imadoki no * (nowadays), bankin no * (lately), atarashiki * (new), shinki naru * (strange)
Here no kindai, but kinsei appeared.
In histories those days, kinsei seemed generally used when employing terms of periodization, for example, in "Nihon kinsei shi (Japanese kinsei history)"# , kinsei was used indicating the Tokugawa era, and
after the Restoration was called 'sai kinsei (the latest kinsei), which was the same as Ienaga's wording mentioned above.
Then, since when has kindai been used as a translating word? Researching its history in detail, it seemed to be used from about the beginning of the Meiji era. The oldest example I have seen was in "Eiwa shouchuu jiten $ (English-Japanese portable dictionary)" (1873, Published at Arima private school), modern was put as follows:
chikagoro no (these days), kindai no, touji no (at that time)
At Nakae Chomin's private school of French sciences, "Futsuwa jirin (French-Japanese dictionary) was published in 1887, and moderne was translated in it as:
Moderne, adj. kindai no, houkon no * (now)
histoire| kinsei shi (kinsei history)
les|, sub. fastening wood when cutting trees in older ages. kindai no hito (a person of kindai)
le|, sub. kindai no fuuchi * (sense of kindai)
a la|, loc. adv. kindai no fuuchi ni shitagaite * (having a sense of kindai)
Here, only for 'histoire moderne' kinsei was used, therefore that the formal term for the periodization was not kindai but kinsei may be clearly known. In another dictionaries of that time, kindai was scarcely used.
There were some such exceptions as the instances above however, kindai as the translating word of modern etc. mainly appeared after the Taisho era (1912-25) at length. In "Mohan eiwa jiten # (The Model of English-Japanese dictionary)", modern was translated:
kinsei no, kindai no, genkon no # (present), genkon no hito # (present person), konjin # (today's person)
Since then, kindai and kinsei as translated words of modern have been succeeded till today. Kinsei was used as the formal academic term till the 1950's explained above, and after then kindai inherited it.
According to "Jidai kubun ron (Treatise on periodization)" by Touyama Shigeki $ (in "Iwanami koza nihon rekishi (Lectures of Iwanami,Japanese
history)" volume 2, 1963), before the Pacific War, the view of history having been treated carelessly, the periodization had not been thought rightly, after the War however, assuming the historical materialism, 'five periodizations of the primitive, the ancient, the middle (feudal period), kindai (the modern) and the present ages' became 'common sense in academic circle'. And the author continued that "Summary of guidance for school teachers" by the Ministry of Education also fundamentally employed this periodization in edition of 1951 and 1958, and used the term 'kindai shakai (kindai society)'.
Thus kindai became used as the formal term of the periodization and monopolized the translating word nearly equivalent to modern age, at the same time kinsei lost the position of formal term, or became survived meaning either a part of the middle age or the period between the middle age and the modern age.
What I am questioning here is however, not the formal meaning after the 1950's till today, which is as I put above the surface meaning. Generally speaking, the meaning of a word does not defined only by a few specialists. The crucial question is so to speak the reverse side meaning of kindai, which I name provisionally the reverse side meaning because of not being seized by the definition of specialists or by consulting dictionaries, it is however the preceding meaning of the surface one. It is the meaning that the translating kindai essentially holds. It may be better to call the 'effect' of a word rather than the meaning. This 'effect' had sustained the word since its appearance
about 1890 till when having acquired the surface meaning in the 1950's, and is, I believe, still surviving in the translating word kindai we are using today.
In the magazine "Bunsho sekai (writing world)" (July 1910), feature article titled 'what is kindai jin (modern person)' was recorded, in the beginning of which a man signed kisha (a journalist) wrote the following:
Recently we often hear about kindai person, who may be the point of the kindai literature , not knowing it well, one could not clearly understand the literature of gendai * (present days)
accordingly I will be grateful if the high opinions by the notables recorded as follows shall be anyhow useful to you readers.
First, let us look at here the distinguishing use of kindai and gendai. Kindai was used as phrases 'kindai person' and 'kindai literature' while 'gendai' was used as 'gendai no literature', in which phrase gendai meant clearly a period of history. On the other hand kindai in the phrase 'kindai literature' was surely distinguished from gendai, it did not only mean a period of history, but some special meaning other than that of a periodization.
Such kindai having some special meaning was as this journalist said, frequently spoken and being fashion these days. Following this preface, the opinions by the famous scientists and litterateurs of the day, Kaneko Chikusui * , Kamitsukasa Shouken * , Abe Yoshishige * Shimamura Hougetsu * and so on were recorded. Kaneko Chikusui having titled
'Realistic and uncertain feeling', wrote the characters of 'kindai person' as 'realistic', 'scientific and materialistic', 'individualistic', 'extending the range of desire and elevating its degree', 'nervous', 'pessimistic', etc. and concluded:
None of these various characters have not always been found since old times. In Europe, from ancient Greece they have repeatedly appeared. But now, being founded on the special ground of the present civilization, they have a special note of kindai.
After all, having thought and explained the content of kindai person in various ways, he found none have come to the point, seemed to have resigned and abandoned to thinking, and then concluded 'a special note of kindai'.
This is, in my view, rather the opinion getting at the reality of kindai. Same as every word in fashion, this kindai had also some special meaning which except for the people in the fashion none could have understood well, which was not the so-called meaning, but 'a special note' as he said, namely, a special meaning of a word, or a particular 'effect' on the behavior of language.
Speaking of the meaning, we ought to say rather such a word has no meaning, and the less a word has the meaning, the more it attracts people, is abused, and becomes in fashion, the circumstances of which might not be understood well, I will explain it in detail later.
At any rate, the kindai, the meaning of which was very difficult to catch, was just in fashion. In the same magazine, Kamitsukasa Shoken described in what was titled 'Silkworm appeared having broken cocoon':
Here are some inclinations which unreasonably imitate kindai person were born through these ideas of kindai, and which are willing to grieve or to cry, namely, this is a sort of fashion pretending to be kindai person.
A lot of people seemed to eager to employ this word kindai. First, they vaguely felt some deep meaning difficult to express or some funny looking charm to this word, before thinking of its meaning. These people found around this writer may have been intelligent or in cultural atmosphere, perhaps many of them were young people. The circumstances in those days might be felt to us through this article titled 'pretending to be kindai person'.
Reflecting upon the history of the word kindai, we notice it was extraordinary in fashion several times. The first of which was about 1910 in the end of the Meiji era, introduced above, it was frequently employed among people in the field of literature particularly. Looking over the history of literature, at that time or the following time, there were a lot of essays or papers titled kindai. Owing to this first vogue, kindai became fairly popularlized and soon it seemed to be recorded in dictionaries as a translating word of modern, being laid together with kinsei which had already occupied there.
The following was about the period when in the Pacific War, 1942, the table talk 'The Conquest of kindai' quoted at the beginning of this chapter was held. In the preceding vogue, kindai was positive valued and entirely admired, on the other hand kindai of this period was to be 'conquest', namely negative valued. The utterance of Nakamura Mitsuo mentioned above may have insisted the opposite value on purpose.
Still more, the following vogue began just after the defeat of the Pacific War. As the reaction to the preceding time, kindai of the day was the symbol of the positive value, namely the days of 'kindai literature' and the transit of 'kindai citizen society' etc. And soon after, came the criticism of 'kindai ism (modernism)'.
Hidaka Rokuro * pointed out that how empty the meaning of kindai just
after the defeat of the War could be understood through the fact that this word was amazingly multivocal. Criticizing 'kindai literature' (in "kindaiism" in "General works of present Japanese thoughts" vol.34,1964,Chikuma Shobo) he indicated:
I am surprised at the diversity of the thoughts. Beginning with the members of the Marxist party, Marxist of nonmembers of the same, existentialists, Christians, Freudians, pragmatists, doctrinarians of art for art, classicists, avant-gardists, realists, romanticists, symbolists and so forth are there, such as a hundred of flowers are blooming.
And spoke of 'kindaiism' he added:
Extremely speaking, except the orthodox Marxism-Leninism, all thinking schools seem to be bundled up under the name of kindaiism. The meaning of a word is so much multivocal is because it has almost nothing to mean. Since the meaning of a word is scarce, the word becomes in fashion and abused, and then being fashion and abused, the word becomes multivocal.
Having gone through these times of the vogues of kindai, soon historians had to take up this word, and gave it the meaning of periodization which in reality became to be its surface meaning. This surface meaning was given because the reverse side one against it had been preceding. That is, at first the form of a word * kindai existed, and soon it became getting its proper meaning *, which showed the typical process of the meaning formation of our translating word.
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