ABSTRACT
Futabatei Shimei’s Ukigumo (Floating Clouds, 1887-1889) has long been called “Japan’s first modern novel” by both Japanese and Western literary critics. That phrase, in fact, occupies the prominent position of the main title of its English translation, while the original title and author’s name, Ukigumo of Futabatei Shimei, are relegated to subtitle status. In the essay accompanying her English translation of the work, Marleigh Grayer Ryan emphasizes the novel’s connection to modernity in declarations such as “The portrait of weakness, vacillation, fear, and uncertainty is a vivid representation of modern man’s dilemma.”2
