The South that is not in the South ：The Fate of Chihei Nakamura’s “Southern Literature”

In 2024, the centennial celebration of Miyazaki City’s incorporation brought attention to a documentary film on Chihei Nakamura, an influential writer in the prewar Showa literary scene. Nakamura (1908–1963), a native of Miyazaki, was twice nominated for the Akutagawa Prize, renowned as a proponent of “Southern Literature”. His idealistic vision fused the optimistic ethos of southern Kyushu with the complex historical and colonial contexts of Taiwan. During the war, Nakamura was conscripted to the Singapore and Malaysia, an experience that profoundly affected him. Consequently, wartime experiences disrupted his literary aspirations, leading to his withdrawal from the literary mainstream and a shift toward cultural and economic contributions in his hometown.Nakamura’s later work, particularly “The Old Pond in the Mountains”, reflects his struggles with postwar disillusionment and self-reproach, symbolized through the mythical figure of a kappa. Despite its eventual decline, Nakamura’s “Southern Literature” expanded the boundaries of Japanese literature by exploring marginalized voices and the nuanced interplay of idealism and realism.