Ohara Yuji
Japanese Literature, 51(1) 29-37, Jan, 2002 Peer-reviewed
In this essay I will read Ryunosuke Akutagawa's short story "Ito-jo-oboegaki" to think of what a historical novel is. In so doing, by comparing it with Soho Tokutomi's Kindai-nihon-kokuminshi whose standard description of national history received the Imperial Award of the Japan Academy, I will make clear Akutagawa's critical perspective toward history which Tokutomi lacks. Although it has been seldom treated as historical, the story will shed light on the relation between fiction and history.