ABSTRACT
By modelling and polishing colloquial style in literature which was widely read by fellow intellectuals, educated men did much to help dispel the fears of those who saw only deficiencies, thereby preparing the way for the eventual spread of the new style to other areas. In September 1885, Tsubouchi Shoyo, critic, novelist, and dramatist, published the first chapter of his landmark work of literary criticism, Shosetsu Shinzui, in which he presented the then radical idea of the novel, hitherto considered beneath the dignity of serious authors, as an art form worthy of high regard in a civilized society. Futabatei Shimei, impressed by Tsubouchi’s ideas on realism and influenced by his own study of Goncharov, Turgenev, Dostoevsky, and the Russian critic Vissarion Belinsky, resolved instead to become a writer. The next major champion of the gembun’itchi cause in the novel was Yamada Bimyo, a childhood friend of Futabatei, who published his first full length colloquial style novel, Fukin Shirabe no Hitofushi.
