ABSTRACT
The famous Akutagawa-Tanizaki plot controversy began in February 1927 and continued until July of the same year, when it was terminated by Akutagawa's tragic death. In his critique, Akutagawa referred explicitly to Tanizaki's recent works in which strange stories and complicated plots were characteristic features. The controvery between Tanizaki and Akutagawa aroused keen interest in literary circles at that time, not only because it was carried out between the two most active and promising writers, but also because it was concerned with the question of the novel at a time when Japanese writers, dissatisfied with the I-novel, were searching anxiously for new forms. In fact, both Tanizaki and Akutagawa began their literary careers rebelling against the then-dominant naturalism and the I-novels. Deeply immersed in Western decadent literature, these two truly urban writers were skeptical about the idealistic humanism of the Shirakaba group as well, a group which also rebelled against naturalism.
