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Had late Tokugawa literature been more vigorous and creative, it is possible that the literary impact of Western culture would have proved less overwhelming. As it was, the introduction of European culture resulted in a major break with the past that has no parallel in any of the important literature of the West.

Until about 1860 the only foreign literary influences of importance had come from China. For over two centuries, contacts with Europe had by and large been limited to the small Dutch settlement off Nagasaki—and there the focus was on trade rather than culture. Translations of European literature began in the 1860’s, but it was not until 1878 that the first complete novel from the West was translated into Japanese. As in the case of many of the early translations, the choice, Bulwer-Lytton’s Ernest Maltravers, strikes one as peculiar. Practical information was at least as important a criterion as literary value in introducing books from the West and one of the most successful of all the early importations was Samuel Smiles’ utilitarian tract, Self-Help. The novels of Disraeli, reflecting modern political processes, were also given an undue degree of attention.

In the 1880’s the trickle of Western works grew into a stream and, by the end of the century, into a mighty torrent which is still continuing in the present day. Several of the most gifted writers of the Meiji Period devoted much of their energies to the translation of one or more European authors; indeed it was mainly through these translations that the reading public first became acquainted with the various aspects of modern fiction. In many cases Japanese writers then tried to produce the same type of novels in Japanese, with rather surprising results. One Japanese author, for example, under the impact of Crime and Punishment, wrote a story about the life and tribulations of a man belonging to the untouchable eta class. For even in these early days of direct assimilation, European literary influence was rarely a matter of straightforward imitation. Naïve interpretation, and often misunderstanding, of the