German Images in Japanese Literature—An Intercultural and Intertextual Analysis

In this paper, I will examine images of Germans and descriptions of German qualities in Japanese literature as well as in Japan. Although the relationship between Japan and Germany has a tradition of over four hundred years, there are as few Japanese novels in which Germans appear and play important roles as German novels in which Japanese appear. We have, however, a few remarkable discussions of the mutual images of each people. ¹ In the first part of my paper, the common German images in non-literary Japanese texts will be discussed from a historical and a geopolitical viewpoint. In the second part, the German images will be dealt with in historical order. In the last part, the problem of otherness will be discussed.

1. German images in general

1.1. Historical and geopolitical backgrounds of the relationship between Japan and Germany

There has been little research on the roles of Germans and Germany in Japanese literature, although research on Europeans and Americans has been popular. ² The reasons for this lack of research are twofold: historical and geopolitical. Historically, Japan and Europe never developed as close a relationship as that which existed since ancient times between Europe and the Arabic countries. The land of the Rising Sun and the Occident encountered each other for the first time in the sixteenth century when the Portuguese, the first Europeans, reached a southern Japanese island in 1542. The first German who came to Japan is said to have been Michael Hohreiter in 1591. ³ After Hohreiter's visit, several Germans came to Japan, usually in the guise of Dutchmen employed by the East India Company, as the Dutch were the only Europeans allowed to live in Japan by the Isolation Edicts of the Tokugawa Shogunate. Substantial encounters between Japan and Germany took place in the second half of the nineteenth century after the Meiji Restoration in 1868.

The other reason, the geopolitical, stems from the location of Japan. Japan lies in the eastern portion of the earth that is farthest away from Europe. This geographical distance slowed the development of a mutual relationship between Japan and Europe/Germany, and kept the two areas apart until the end of the European Middle Ages. Japan was one of the last countries with which Europe got acquainted. But Japan could not avoid coming into close political contact with the Western Powers by the middle of nineteenth century. In 1854, the Treaty of Peace and Amity between Japan and the US was signed; this meant the abolition of the traditional isolationist policies of the Shogunate. Prussia concluded the treaty of Amity and Commerce with the Shogunate after Great Britain, France, the USA, Russia and other European countries. Japan had to appear on the stage of world politics and history.

Although Germany came to Japan later than other European countries such as Great Britain and France, the middle European country contributed significantly to the modernization and industrialization of the new Japan. It is well known that Japan developed its Constitution and military system on the Prussian model. In the Second World War, Japan and Germany concluded a Tripartite Pact with Italy. These historical connections may have brought Japan emotionally nearer to Germany and may have increased Japanese sympathy for Germany and Germans. Although Germany cannot be regarded as the most influential country among the Western Powers, it was certainly one of the Western countries that helped Japan most in its modernization.

One indication that Germans were indispensable to Japan's modernization is the number of Oyatoi-Gaikokujin/Oyatoi ("Oyatoi-Gaikokujin" literally means "employed foreigners") who were employed by the government, official and private institutions to help Japan build new systems. The number of German Oyatoi-Gaikokujin was greatest as teaching staff in official schools and universities throughout the Meiji period, though there were more British and Americans than Germans if teaching staff in private institutions are included. ⁵

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