Wakamatsu began translating English stories into Japanese as appropriate reading materials for her students (Tanaka, 2000: 36). She chose texts that displayed moral values, reflecting her belief that literature should not be mere entertainment, but should inspire and educate readers about public morals (Shimada, 1994: 239: Tanaka, 2000: 39; Kataoka, 1973: 153). Her most renowned work, a translation of Little Lord Fauntleroy (F. H. Burnett, 1886) as 小公子 (Shōkōshi) (Copeland, 2000: 99; Yamamoto, 1981: 89), which was serialised between August 1890 and January 1892 in Jogaku-zasshi, introduced American ideas and morals that were based on Puritan culture (Takita, 1985: 4; Kataoka, 1973: 141-143). Women-focused fiction by female authors was the most popular literary genre of that time in the United States (Baym, 1978: 11), and Little Lord Fauntleroy was no exception. This children’s novel was published in London and New York in 1886, only four years prior to its Japanese publication, and was a phenomenal success (Wilson, 1996: 235). The book, which became one of the year’s best-sellers, was later adapted for the stage and performed in both cities in 1888 (ibid.). Wakmatsu’s translation of this popular work earned her prestige within the literary circle (Kitamura, 1956: 103). She also produced a large number of short fictions that closely focused on Christian belief; these include わが宿の花 (Waga yado no hana, 1892) [The Flower at My Inn] and 勇士最後の手帋 (Yūshi saigo no tegami, 1894) [The Last Letter of the Hero] (Kataoka, 1973: 148-149, 151). However, Tanaka (2000: 40) notes that her original fiction did not earn Wakamatsu as much prestige as her translations in the literary milieu. This contrasts with the situation of such contemporaries as Ōgai and Kuroiwa, whose fiction was equally popular as their translations. The reason could be that Wakamatsu did not follow the literary trends of that time, such as the Romantic and Naturalist movements, and remained as a writer within Christian thought (Kataoka, 1973: 154). Thus, unlike her
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contemporaries, her creativity as an author does not seem to have played a role in the development of Japanese literature. Rather, her writing practice was focused on enlightening the public with her focus on moral values (i.e. conservative) (Tanaka, 2000: 39).
Wakamatsu was by no means the first person to attempt to produce literature for young readers and children: Takia (1985: 4) states that Iwaya Sazanami (巖谷小波, 1870-1933) preceded her in this aspiration. However, what differentiated children’s literature translated by Wakamatsu from existing works such as Iwaya’s こがね丸 (Koganemaru, 1891) [Golden Dog] was her modern writing style (Takita, 1985: 1). Inspired especially by Goethe’s Reineke Fuchs (1794) [Reynard the Fox], Koganemaru was written for boys with a strong emphasis on feudalistic morality, and as Iwaya considered colloquial language too distracting for the readers, he deliberately avoided it (ibid; Yamamoto, 1981: 111). Instead, he employed 五七調 (goshichi-chō) or “five- seven mode” (Thomas, 2008), which can be found in such classical Japanese poetry as 万葉集 (Manyōshū, circa AD759) (Yamamoto, ibid.), creating a rather old-fashioned feel (Kamei, 1994: 252). His approach contrasts with that of Wakamatsu, whose colloquial style, referred to as genbun itchi, was born of her strong focus on young female and child target-culture readers (Shimada, 1994: 251-251; Yamada, 2012: 29). Shimada (1994: 249) describes the distinctive effect of Wakamatsu’s language as being as if she was “talking to children, including her own”. Women’s voices or speech, which were usually distinguished by the final particle in a sentence, began appearing in novels for the first time with the emergence of genbun itchi (Inoue, 2006: 93), originally developed by Futabatei.13 However, the speech of the female characters in the early model of genbun itchi did not reflect the naturalness of the spoken language used by women in daily conversations (Inoue, 2002: 405) as it was created by male writers of that period, based on the language of middle class women (Saito, 2010: 149-151, 166). Furthermore, in this male-created female voice, which came to be standardised, individual characteristics were lost (Inoue, 2006: 95). Saito (2010: 149) observes that female characters in Meiji literature by male authors portrayed a femininity largely
13 Genbun itchi was developed from the narrative style used in 落語 (rakugo) (Inoue, 2002: 398), which
is a traditional comic storytelling performance, centred on conversations between the characters (Brau, 2008: 1-2). These characters were typically from the class of labourers, shopkeepers, craftsmen and entertainers who grew up in the downtown area of Edo (Novograd, 1974: 188).
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centred on the male ideal of women. She further notes that this phenomenon also prevailed in 歌舞伎 (Kabuki) prior to the Meiji period. In kabuki, 女形 (onnagata) or ‘female roles’ were traditionally performed by male actors and usually portrayed female characters with an exaggeratedly feminine manner of speech and body language, thus representing an idealised notion of femininity in that period (ibid.: 150). Likewise, the female writers of the day regularly complied with the standard created by men, which was studded with honorifics (Tsubouchi, 1930: 7). This standard model was, however, unable to portray female characters’ voices in modern narratives (ibid.). Wakamatsu’s female language, by contrast, can be characterised as “simple”, “elegant” but “truly natural” (Morita, 1896), consisting of the native dialects and slang, as well as honorific and polite expressions appropriate to each character in the texts (Takita, 1985: 6). Thus, it could be argued that she was the first female writer to reflect the variety of real women’s voices in Meiji literature. The example below demonstrates Wakamatsu’s language use in its reflection of the emotions of a mother talking to her child, while hinting at the classical feel of female writing of Heian period (794-1185) (Kamei, 1994: 252-253). The passage is taken from Little Lord Fauntleroy, where the mother, being unable to disclose the death of her husband to her son Cedric, attempts to explain the situation they are now going to face:
“Yes, He is well,” she sobbed; “he is quite, quite well, but we – we have no one left but each other. No one at all.” (Burnett, p.1)
ソウだよ、モウよくお成りなすつたよ、モウ、スッ…スッかり、よく おなりなのだよ、ダガネ、おまへとわたしは、モウふたり切りにな
ってしまったのだよ、ふたり切りで、モウ外に何人だ れ ももいないのだ
よ 。 と 曇 り 聲 に 云 は れ て […] (Wakamatsu) [Yes, [he] has already become well, [he] has become qu, quite well, but you and me, are now two alone, two alone, and there is no one else. [He] was told by the clouded voice […]]
Kamei (ibid.) argues that “[the way she uses wago [as opposed to kango, or kanji-based writing], which creates softness, is ideal for conversation between children and mothers]”.
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Furthermore, Wakamatsu reproduced the emotional dialogue of the source text, which is written in simple language (ibid.), while employing the metaphor 曇り聲 (kumorigoe) [clouded voice], which is poetic, instead of more commonly used 涙声 (namidagoe) [sobbed voice]. She also takes a source-oriented approach, rendering the sobbing voice by using a stammer (underlined) for “quite, quite”. Her idiosyncratic writing style influenced the leading Meiji authors of both children’s and adult literature, and contributed to the development of new literary expressions (Copeland, 2000: 100, Yamamoto, 1973: 48).
The language she used was not the only reason why her works generated a new readership (Wakabayashi, 2008: 236). Wakabayashi (ibid.) explains that Wakamatsu also glossed every Chinese character in her texts with phonetic kana, in order to facilitate reading by showing how they are pronounced. Thus, women and children who were less literate than men could also access the texts.
Despite her innovative attitude towards writing style, Wakamatsu’s approach to translation practice was rather biased (Tanaka, 2000: 39). As in her writing practice, her main objective in translating was to introduce the Victorian concepts of motherhood and family values (ibid.: 39-40), and in this she was perhaps influenced by her husband Iwamoto, who advocated a concept of the family based on the love of man and woman, which was new to a Japanese culture in which a feudalistic family system still prevailed (Takita, 1985: 5). However, Kitamura (1956: 107) argues that, unlike Iwamoto, Wakamatsu’s concept of the ideal woman was strongly focused on Christianity. She selected Little Lord Fauntleroy to translate as it demonstrates the belief that a child’s innocence could have an impact on the moral reform of society (Takita, 1985: 5). Thus, while her translation strategy was reader-focused in terms of fluency, the choices of text and translation strategy were influenced by her moralist ideas.