AN OUTLINE HISTORY OF TWENTIETH CENTURY JAPANESE LITERATURE 21 vigorously in the period between 1946 and 1948, but produced almost nothing of value. After the publication of the Machine Poechikku shishiu or Matinee Poetique Anthology in 1948, the members all turned to fiction and criticism. Shiki too was republished shortly after the war, but it was rather inconspicuous and came to an end after five issues. Miyoshi Tatsuji became even more concerned with the older Japanese classics and Maruyama became more realistic. Both wrote lyric verse. The various circles of poetry thus moved in various ways, but the poets who have left the most enduring works are the older ones. Included are Takamura Kotar6, with Tenkei (A model); Sat6 Haruo, with Saku no kusabue (The grass flute of Saku); Horiguchi Daigaku, with Ningen no uta (The songs of man); Kusano Shimpei, with Kaeru (Frogs), containing Kusano's poems in their final revised form; It6 Shizuo, with Hankyo (Reverberations); Nishiwaki Junzabur6, with Tabibito kaerazu (The traveler has not returned); Miyoshi Tatsuji, with Rakuda no kobu ni matagatte (Straddled on the bump of a camel); Maruyama Kaoru with Hana no shibe (The stamens and pistils of a flower), and Yoshida Issui, with Raten bara (Rosae latinae). Shaku Ch6kf, known better as a poet of the tanka and as a student of Japanese literature, suddenly published two volumes, Kodai kan'aisha (Songs in deep affection of ancient times) and Kindai hish6shi (Songs of lament for modern times), and expressed in full the feelings of a modern man although using the form and vocabulary of the classic choka, the long poem of the eighth and earlier centuries. The classical styles of Naka Kansuke and Nakanishi God6 have also attracted attention. D. THE TANKA 33. The Tanka in the Early Meiji Era In the early years of the Meiji period, the long poem, unhampered by the rigid 31- and 17 -syllable forms respectively taken by the tanka and haiku, blossomed under the influence of Western literature. The poets of the tanka were followers of the Keien school of Kagawa Kageki (1778-1843) and were haunted by the melodies of the Kokinshu. The Imperial Poetry Bureau, which had controlled the annual poetry competitions since 1874, took a position of dominance after Takasaki Masakaze became its head in 1888. Some of the poets associated with the bureau were Saisho Atsuko, Koide Tsubara, Kuroda Kiyotsuna, and Majima Fuyumichi. Continuing to find their subject matter in nature, they wrote flatly and monotonously of the flowers and the moon. Some called for a break from tradition. Thus Majima declared that the sexual urge lay at the basis of poetry and makoto or sincerity was the quality through which poetry made its appeal; the works Yokomoji hyakunin isshu (One poem from each of a hundred poets, in horizontal writing) and Kaika shindai kashu (A collection of poems with new titles for a civilized age), were published as early as 1878; Suematsu Kench6 and Sasaki Hirotsuna, calling for poems based on a respect for tradition but inspired by actual scenes and emotions, suggested that the steamship and the wireless might be called in the tanka by their Sino-Japanese names instead of by the awkward circumlocutions based on native Japanese words; and Unagami Tanehira asked for a revival of the Man'yoshu. 34. The Asakasha 2~ ~i- (Light Fragrance Society) and Chikuhakukai r-F t /~ (Bamboo and Oak Society) It was not, however, till 1893, when Ochiai Naobumi formed the Asakasha or Light Fragrance Society, that a group of poets began to find their inspiration in the living present. Ochiai himself was deeply rooted in the classics. Reserved and retiring in his personality, he nevertheless possessed a romantic flair that greatly attracted the members of his school who included Yosano Tekkan, Sasaki Nobutsuna, Onoe Saishui, Kaneko Kun'en, Hattori Motoharu, and Kubo Inokichi. Among these poets Onoe, Hattori, and Kubo formed the Ikazuchikai or Thunder Society and tried to bring about a revolution in the tanka. One of the branches of the Asakasha was the Chikuhakukai or Bamboo and Oak Society, led by Sasaki, whose poems in the journal Kokoro no hana (Flowers of the heart), founded in 1898, were known for their combination of an easy grace and quiet subjectivity learned from the classics of the Heian age. Among Sasaki' s followers were Ishigure Chimata, Kinoshita Toshiharu, Kawada Jun, Kujo6 Takeko, and Yanagiwara Byakuren. 35. The My~ojo e ': (Bright Star) School Yosano Tekkan at first decried the writing of love poetry as leading to a corruption of morals but he also wrote fiercely vigorous poems, inspired by the Sino-Japanese war, whose language led to their being called "the poetry of tigers and swords." His wife, Akiko, on the other hand, wrote poems that were marked by an unrestrained admission of fiery emotions which came in the end to influence not only Yosano but even Yosano's master, Ochiai. Under Yosano the society known as the Shinshisha (New Poetry School) was formed in 1900, with My6j6 (Bright star) as its journal. Both the tanka and shi or long poem were written in a highly romantic style, with the poets claiming for themselves the right to describe life and love in all their emotional outbursts. For a time it was held that no one deserved the name of poet unless he belonged to the Myojo school. Achieving its highest prosperity in the years 1904-1906, it nurtured the tanka poets Yamakawa Tomiko, Mizuno Y6shu, Kubota Utsubo, Ishikawa Takuboku, Yoshii Isamu, Kitahara Hakushi, S6ma Gyofu, Hirano Banri, Onuki (Okamoto) Kanoko, Takamura K6taro, and Kinoshita Mokutaro.