A Journey through Colonial Korea：Iwaya Sazanami’s Experiences in Korea

MASUI, Makoto

doi:2021.12.1.39

The Journal of Japanese Language Literature Studies > Volume 12(1); 2021 > Article

Article

Border Crossings: The Journal of Japanese-Language Literature Studies 2021;12(1): 39-61.
doi: https://doi.org/10.22628/bcjjl.2021.12.1.39

A Journey through Colonial Korea：Iwaya Sazanami’s Experiences in Korea

Makoto MASUI

Lecturer, Shanghai International Studies University

植民地朝鮮をめぐる旅―― 巌谷小波の朝鮮体験

増井真琴

上海外国語大学日本文化経済学院講師。文学博士。専門は日本近代文学、日本児童文学。日本学術振興会特別研究員(PD)を経て、現職。

Correspondence Makoto MASUI ,Email: masuimacoto@frontier.hokudai.ac.jp

Published online: 30 June 2021.

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

ABSTRACT

Iwaya Sazanami (1870-1933) was a prominent figure in modern Japanese children’s literature. He traveled to the colonial Korean peninsula eight times in his life, the main purpose of these journeys being to give oral presentations of fairy tales to children in Korea. He energetically traveled throughout the country, including Keizyo (Seoul), Pyongyang, Kaesong, Wonsan and Busan.
Regarding Sazanami’s visits to Korea, there have been excellent studies by Kim Sung-yeon(2010) and Otake Kiyomi(2008). However, previous studies have mainly focused on Sazanami as a children’s author and oral storyteller, and analysis of his literary works, political thought and ideology outside of this framework has not always been sufficient. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to clarify what kind of experiences Sazanami had in Korea under Japanese rule, and the essence of the literature, political thought, and political ideology he formed there.
This is important because he was a committed imperialist and colonialist with close ties to Saito Makoto and other officials in the Korean Governor-General’s Office. In the haiku he wrote in Korea, we can see a kind of “Japanese-style Orientalism” through which a writer from an imperialist state that was one of the first to modernize in Asia discovers and grows to love the pre-modern cultural customs and manners of its colonies.

Keywords: Iwaya Sazanami, Korean Peninsula, Colony, Keijo-Nippo, Chosen-Shinbun

キ―ワ―ド: 巌谷小波, 朝鮮半島, 植民地, 『京城日報』, 『朝鮮新聞』