<i>Botsurisōronsō</i>  – The ‘Submerged Ideals-Debate’ in Meiji Japan by Tsubouchi Shōyō and Mori Ōgai

Abstract In the early 1890s, the Botsurisōronsō debate on ‘submerged ideals’ took place between the literary theorist, translator and academic Tsubouchi Shōyō (1859–1935) and the writer, translator and medical researcher Mori Ōgai (1862–1922). The discussion was carried out by Shōyō in the pages of the literary journal Waseda bungaku , which he had founded as professor of Waseda University, and Ōgai in the journal Shigarami Zōshi, which Ōgai had founded. Initially responding to Shōyō’s advocacy of Shakespeare, Ōgai addressed the question of whether modern Japanese literature should absorb and reflect metaphysical ideals or not. Recently returned from a trip to Prussia, Ōgai introduced the aesthetic philosophy of Eduard von Hartmann, claiming it as compatible with Shōyō’s subdivision of the novel into three schools. The opposition of the two eminent literary figures was also reflected in Shōyō’s English-style philosophy and Ōgai’s German metaphysical idealism in the Romantic tradition. This means that Shōyō emphasized a poetics of literature emulating photographic portrayal as well as the incorporation of the Buddhist aesthetics of mono no aware , while Ōgai advocated an idealistic understanding of ideas in the German Romantic tradition. This debate showed the Japanese public for the first time the role of modern literature, bungaku , as notions of literary fiction were arising in Meiji.