The Undercurrent of Romanticism [Cafe Romanticism 46]

[Cafe Romanticism]
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Looking at the history of Japanese Romanticism, it has been passed down continuously, beginning with ancient fantasies like myths and The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, through Edo-period plays like Kabuki, picture books like Nansō Satomi Hakkenden and Ugetsu Monogatari, to Meiji-era New Style poetry and Izumi Kyōka of the Ken'yūsha circle. Furthermore, one could say that waka poetry, since the Man'yōshū and Kokinshū, has always been Romanticism itself.

Entering the Shōwa era, these were attacked as old-fashioned by proponents of materialism and realism (called naturalism in the literary world), and further pushed aside by popular novels and colloquial free verse, disappearing from the literary scene quite fleetingly.

However, I recently realized that, unexpectedly, Romanticism has been quietly surviving since the Shōwa era within detective stories and mysteries. And the originator of the detective stories and similar historical novels that are still being written one after another today is Okamoto Kidō.

Kidō left behind many masterpieces starting with "Shuzenji Monogatari" in his scripts for New Kabuki around the end of the Meiji to Taishō eras, and works from the "Ugetsu Shū," "Sennichi Shū," and "Sangetsu Shū" pictured, such as "Jiraiya," "Banchō Sarayashiki," "Toribeyama Shinjū," and "Gonza to Sukejū," continue to be performed today.

However, the "Hanshichi Torimonochō" series has a reputation that far exceeds that, with contemporary writers even calling "Hanshichi" the textbook of historical novels. This Hanshichi series is the very originator of the Japanese detective story that continues to this day, and it is said he started writing it after getting a hint from the Sherlock Holmes stories.

The diverse developments, including not only deduction but also legends, ghost stories, action, and domestic drama, as well as the descriptions of nature and townscapes inserted between scenes, have become a model for subsequent writers. And above all, there is a sense of Romanticism in the way it depicts an ideal town of the good old days and life through the beautiful four seasons. Yosano Akiko's famous poem, "The moonlit night of flowers passing through Gion to Kiyomizu, everyone I meet tonight is beautiful," is a beautiful scene of Kyoto in the Meiji era, but the townscapes and the lives of the people in these stories are like an Edo version of that.

Just as British Romantic writers idealized the 19th-century Victorian era, if I could, I would also like to live in Kanda Myōjin-shita during the late Edo and Meiji periods. Hanshichi is a hero linked to the seats of gods and angels, the seasonal flowers adorning the town are incarnations of spirits, the pleasure quarters are home to beautiful goddesses, and it is a world where even demons live in the darkness.

And the way this background world is depicted has been followed by many junior writers, creating an image of an ideal Edo town common to many historical novels, and the recently popular historical novels about shops like confectioneries and small restaurants also depict their respective stories within such a world.

To give one more example, it would be the well-known Yokomizo Seishi.

Yokomizo Seishi's "Ningyō Sashichi Torimonochō" series sold explosively before and after the war, and the author himself spoke rather proudly, saying, "The title and everything else were greatly inspired by the Hanshichi stories," and after the war, it gained popularity when adapted into films starring Wakayama Tomisaburō, Matsukata Hiroki, and others. The 1950s Shintōhō version of Ningyō Sashichi is a valuable work in which that Wakayama Tomisaburō appears as a white-faced handsome man.

Regarding the "Ningyō Sashichi Torimonochō" series such as "Gin no Kanzashi" and "Kakubē Jishi" in the photo, even in the period shortly after the war, Yokomizo himself said, "Others were banned or didn't sell at all, but only Sashichi continued to sell."

Also, the Kindaichi Kōsuke series that Yokomizo worked on after the war depicted Gothic-romantic bizarre incidents against the backdrop of a peaceful farming village in the Sanyō region around 1955, and the visual effects were particularly high when adapted into films and TV dramas, with the Kindaichi played by Ishizaka Kōji and directed by Ichikawa Kon being a particularly big hit.

In this series as well, the background world outside of the bloody incidents is one where the traditional customs of local old families and clans breathe within beautiful rural landscapes, and in a sense, it seems like a Romantic novel depicted as if it were an event in a mythological world. It is famous that Ichikawa Kon treated Kindaichi not as a detective but as an angel, but he likely wanted to depict the nostalgic world itself, which goes beyond a mere detective drama.

Since Okamoto Kidō was a Kabuki playwright, it was natural for him to be well-versed in the shamisen, kouta, and nagauta, but that Sherlock Holmes was also set as a master of the violin. Holmes particularly revered Paganini, and the work depicts him speaking enthusiastically about his performance.

This "Paganiniana" is an arrangement of Paganini's "24 Caprices" by violinist Nathan Milstein, and Paganini's impressive phrases are picked up in a lively manner. The performer is Gidon Kremer, known for his virtuosity, and the jacket also seems to resemble Paganini's appearance.

While the beauty of the instrument's tone and lyrical melodies are the true thrill of violin music, it is not hard to imagine the shock of the audience at the time who witnessed Paganini's virtuosity, rapid playing, and flamboyant performance for the first time.

Paganini, who became famous for his virtuosity to the point where it was rumored he had "sold his soul to the devil," had an even greater influence on later Romantic musicians through his playing methods and compositions. Liszt's "La Campanella" and Rachmaninoff's "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini" are particularly famous, but not only in the string world, even renowned piano composers came to admire Paganini and began incorporating brilliant solos into their works.

Holmes plays the violin, but Tomisaburo Wakayama, who played Ningyo Sashichi, was also a master of the nagauta shamisen along with his younger brother Shintaro Katsu. Whether East or West, and despite the differences between detective stories and mystery novels, or shamisen and violins, music is an indispensable element for romantics in any age.

[Cafe Romanticism]
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