What do you think?
Rate this book
Mori Ogai
135 pages, ebook
First published January 1, 1975
2 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 21, 2019
The novelist, critic, translator and medical scientist Mori Ogai (real name: Mori Rintaro; 1862-1922) was born in Shimane as the son of a surgeon serving the Tsuwano clan. Educated in the Neo-Confucian classics and Dutch, the language of medical studies in the Edo-period (soon to be replaced by German). Ogai developed a taste for literature and read widely, also Chinese poetry.
After graduating from the Tokyo Imperial University Medical School in 1881 (he was the first generation of students to study modern Western medicine with German professors), he became an army physician and as such, he was sent to Germany to study continental hygiene. He remained in Germany from 1884 to 1888. This experience gave Ogai an important exposure to German and other European literature, as is also clear from a story as "Maihime" (1890) which was among others inspired by Goethe.
After his return, Ogai founded a literary journal to introduce the philosophy and literature of European romanticism, particularly Germany, to Japan. He also became known as an important translator of European literature (Goethe, Schiller, Ibsen - in all, over 150 translations). As a critic, Ogai was greatly influenced by the aesthetic theories of Karl von Hartmann. He was a staunch "anti-realist," who assigned literature to the spiritual and emotional domain of life and insisted on ideals in literature. He also opposed modern materialism as that only leads to the pursuit of the gratification of desires.
In 1907, he was promoted to surgeon general and was appointed head of the Medical Division of the Army Ministry. After his retirement in 1916 he became director of the Imperial Museum. During his whole life, he combined a very active bureaucratic career with his literary work. Between 1892 and 1909 Ogai was mostly active as a translator and critic, but from 1909, inspired by the success of Natsume Soseki, he again started writing fiction, first contemporary short stories and plays, and – after the death of Emperor Meiji in 1912 – historical tales and scholarly biographies of historical figures.
Ogai experimented with different modes and in general cultivated a "distanced" narratorial technique – his style has been characterized as "rational, stoic, manly and understated." Like Natsume Soseki, Ogai opposed the Naturalists because of their mechanical attitude to life and their disregard of aesthetic values. From his early stories (discussed above) to his contemporary stories as Gan and his late historical fiction, Ogai is central to the canon of modern Japanese fiction.
After graduating from the Tokyo Imperial University Medical School in 1881 (he was the first generation of students to study modern Western medicine with German professors), he became an army physician and as such, he was sent to Germany to study continental hygiene. He remained in Germany from 1884 to 1888. This experience gave Ogai an important exposure to German and other European literature, as is also clear from a story as "Maihime" (1890) which was among others inspired by Goethe.
After his return, Ogai founded a literary journal to introduce the philosophy and literature of European romanticism, particularly Germany, to Japan. He also became known as an important translator of European literature (Goethe, Schiller, Ibsen - in all, over 150 translations). As a critic, Ogai was greatly influenced by the aesthetic theories of Karl von Hartmann. He was a staunch "anti-realist," who assigned literature to the spiritual and emotional domain of life and insisted on ideals in literature. He also opposed modern materialism as that only leads to the pursuit of the gratification of desires.
In 1907, he was promoted to surgeon general and was appointed head of the Medical Division of the Army Ministry. After his retirement in 1916 he became director of the Imperial Museum. During his whole life, he combined a very active bureaucratic career with his literary work. Between 1892 and 1909 Ogai was mostly active as a translator and critic, but from 1909, inspired by the success of Natsume Soseki, he again started writing fiction, first contemporary short stories and plays, and – after the death of Emperor Meiji in 1912 – historical tales and scholarly biographies of historical figures.
Ogai experimented with different modes and in general cultivated a "distanced" narratorial technique – his style has been characterized as "rational, stoic, manly and understated." Like Natsume Soseki, Ogai opposed the Naturalists because of their mechanical attitude to life and their disregard of aesthetic values. From his early stories (discussed above) to his contemporary stories as Gan and his late historical fiction, Ogai is central to the canon of modern Japanese fiction.
February 21, 2022
An incredibly insightful book about an incredible man. I loved that it listed the works he’s written and summarized a great many of them. My one concern is that it seems the author mixed up his birthday with that of Poe’s.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews