Quiet Fluctuation of Norms Naoya Shiga and the Sense of Ethics in Modern Japan 1910s to 1940s

Quiet Fluctuation of Norms Naoya Shiga and the Sense of Ethics in Modern Japan 1910s to 1940s
Naoya Shiga is regarded as a writer who embodies the completed individual in modern Japanese literature, but his literature also reflects the process of quiet fluctuations in the ethics of modern Japan.

From the Taisho period to the early Showa period, Japan retained its family system and feudal morality while modernizing. The conflict with the father and self-judgment based on conscience that repeatedly appear in Shiga's works were radical at the time as an attitude that prioritized the internal ethics of the individual over the state and community.

The theme represented by "Reconciliation" embraces the social issue of how the modern ego comes to terms with the old authority. Shiga depicted following one's own conscience rather than a revolutionary rupture, separating righteousness from the state and tradition.

In the 1930s, as militarism intensified, Shiga did not engage in frontal criticism, but he remained in tension with the times in that he continued to portray his inner integrity. His concise style rejected sloganistic language and remained personal.

Shiga's literature is a record of the possibilities and limitations of the personal ethic within prewar Japan, and marks the last point where modernity was still believed in.