The Mukden-Antung branch of the South Manchuria Railway runs N. to Mukden (Fengtian), where main line trains come in from Dairen (Dalny), the S. terminus. The Yamato Hotel, at Dairen, is under the rly.
management…The Rly.72 Co. also operates a regular steamship service to Shanghai.
Excerpt from an English guidebook, 1914.73
The excerpt above is from an English guidebook published in Boston in 1914. From the instructions, it is obvious that those places are under institutional control. However, the boundaries between nations were still blurred. Since the boundaries were obscured, the
70 Yosano does mention she stayed at some hotels affiliated with Mantetsu. For instance, when
she visited Tanggangzi, Yosano indicates “The hotel was indirectly managed by the South Manchurian Railway Company, its structure immense in scale and its proprietors scrupulously attentive to conveniences within.”
71 She mentions the “Yamato Hotel” once when she stayed in Dalian. 72 Rly. Refers to railway, i.e. Mantetsu.
73 Philip T. Terry, Terry's Japanese Empire, Including Korea and Formosa, with Chapters on Manchuria, the Trans-Siberian Railway, and the Chief Ocean Routes to Japan; a Guidebook for Travelers; with 8 Specially Drawn Maps and 21 Plans (Boston: Houghton Mifflin company, 1914), 756-7.
mobility should have been increased because there are no barriers. It looks like one can go everywhere by train from these places. To readers of Natsume Sōseki and Yosano Akiko’s travel writings, this excerpt shows the significant influence of Mantetsu, and is indeed quite familiar in terms of the concepts of mobility and blurred boundaries.
Invited by Mantetsu, Natsume Sōseki visited Korea and Manchuria, while Yosano Akiko traveled in Manchuria and Mongolia. During/after the trips, they both published their travelogues in newspapers. However, they adopted different strategies to portray their visions of the Japanese empire in their writings. In order to compare their different strategies, let us contrast the descriptions of the Xiongyue Hot Springs from a 1922 English guidebook and the travelogues of Sōseki and Yosano as follows,
The hot springs, simple thermal, situated on the bank of the river Hsiung- yao, are reached (1.1/3 m. from the station) over a level, shaded carriage road by donkey-car service on a light railway (20 sen). Besides the springs on the river bank, clear thermal spring water bubbles up wherever a hole is bored in the river bed—furnishing in summer a most refreshing and
exhilarating bath encircled as it is by the cold river water. In the stretch of sand along the river bank it is possible to obtain an ‘exclusive’ bath by merely scooping out a hole anywhere. In addition, the much favored sand- bath may be enjoyed.
The Springs of Japan, 192274
Water was gushing out from every spot on this piece of land, no matter where one wandered. You could take off all your clothes, dig a hollow in the sand with your hand, and then stretch out in it: it cost absolutely nothing. Furthermore, if you fell asleep after covering your belly with sand, you could make yourself a kind of padded garment. If you immersed yourself directly in the sand, the gushing water was very hot. When you
74 Tetsudō shō, Japan, The Hot Springs of Japan (and the Principal Cold Springs) Including Chosen (Korea) Taiwan (Formosa) South Manchuria. Under Direction of Frederic De Garis.
filled a basin with the water that burst forth, the color was extremely pure, but this was deceptive. And if you then plunged in without due care, you could have a humiliating experience. Hashimoto and I tore off our yukata and vied with each other in immersing our hairy legs. But very soon, after exchanging a look, we quickly drew back. When a man has stripped himself completely naked and subsequently loses his reason for remaining so, he finds himself in an embarrassing position and loses face.
Natsume Sōseki, 190975
The Xiongyue Hot Spring is rich in mountain, river, and willow scenery, and the quality of the springs is on a par with Hakone in terms of beauty. The starkly bald rocky mountain that juts out nearby has an unusual shape. They call it both Wang’ershan (Watching boy mountain) and
Wangxiaoshan (Small watching mountain). The story is told that in olden days a lad traveled to the capital to compete in the civil service
examinations; his mother climbed this peak and waited day after day for his return until she finally died of agony.
Yosano Akiko, 192876
From these paragraphs, the writers’ strategies and intentions are apparent based on their different ways of portraying the hot spring. The guidebook’s vision of the spring focuses on its functions and utilities/facilities. Here I take advantage of three pictures that were taken by random Japanese tourists or journalists around the times when Sōseki and Yosano traveled in Manchuria and the English guidebook was written. The photos along
75 Natsume, Rediscovering Natsume SōSeki, 97.
with the descriptions in the guidebook, Mankan tokorodokoro, and Man-Mō yūki provide us different visions between the West/East, Japan/China, and Sōseki/Yosano. From the guidebook, the readers are able to figure out quick and basic knowledge of the spring, just like the figure 277 shows us that we can only see a simple and clean image of the hot spring. Similar to his Mankan tokorodokoro in which the main subject—Manchuria— disappeared, Sōseki’s version of the spring also missed the subject of the spring. As in figure 3,78 the reader would not learn the name of the spring from his depiction. we can find many objects such as the laundress, the people, the water, and the houses, but we would never recognize that the hot spring is the main subject. Also, rather than describing
77 See Figure 2. The photo credits to Manshū nichinichi shimbun 満洲日日新聞, June, 1912. 78 See Figure 3. The photo credits to Nanmanchū tetsudō corp. 南満洲鉄道株式会社, March 20,
1926.
the landscape or the functions of the spring, Sōseki emphasizes more the human affection which brings up his struggle with the issue of adjusting himself to the circumstances. Failing to enjoy the spring, Sōseki ends up going back to take a modern bath. Moreover, Yosano, by contrast, portrays attractive sceneries about the spring and its peripheries, and tells a beautiful story behind the sight. As also in figure 4,79 the hot spring is not in the center of the picture and the whole picture consists of many important elements that cannot be omitted and look like they are telling a beautiful story.
79 See Figure 4. The photo credits to Buneitō shoten 文栄堂書店, March 10, 1931. Figure 3. The Xiong Yue Hot Spring in 1911.