Toward Simplicity: Script Reform Movements in the Meiji Period
Author(s): Nanette Twine
Source: Monumenta Nipponica, Vol. 38, No. 2 (Summer, 1983), pp. 115-132
Published by: Sophia University
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Toward Simplicity
ScriptReformMovementsin the Meiji Period
by NANETn TwNmE
Tl9 earlyMeijiperiodwasa timeofupheavalinthepolitical,economic,
HE
cultural,and socialspheresinJapan.A further
area in whichtheneedfor
changewas recognizedby a farsighted
fewwas the revitalization
of the
written
Japaneselanguage.Withouta uniform,
easilycomprehensible
written
language,theassimilationofthenewWesternlearningand thesmoothrunningofan
efficient
systemof mass communication,
both essentialto the developmentof
themodernstate,would be severelyrestricted.
In 1868,the year of the Meiji Restoration,the Japaneselanguagewas by no
means an effective
instrument
of communication.
There was a complicatednetworkof regionaldialects;thespokenand written
languageswereso dissimilaras
to necessitate
thecompilationofseparategrammars
foreach; thewritten
language
itselfwas dividedinto severaldiscretestyles,each drawingits vocabularyand
syntaxfromearlymedievalChineseor Japanese;and thereweremorethanten
thousandChinesecharactersin use. Japaneseintellectuals
regardedwritingas a
means of displayingtheirerudition,a kindof academicshowcaseratherthan a
practicalservant.Its separationfromeverydayaffairswas of such long standing
thatit could not functionconciselyand effectively
to conveyinformation.
The problemwas not,as mightat first
be supposed,thatthemajority
ofJapanese
wereilliterate.At the end of the Tokugawaperiodthereexisteda widerangeof
educationalinstitutions
varyingin scope from small temple schools offering
commonersa rudimentary
educationto government
Confucianacademiesforthe
highereducationof samurai.The government
gave officialsupportto schoolsfor
the upper class, whose membersas rulersand administrators
of the country
neededa highdegreeof education.Commonerswithno suchstandardsto maintain wereleftto fendforthemselvesin obtainingbasic literacyskills;schooling
was not forbiddenthem,but neitherwas any officialsanctionor assistanceextended untilthe late Tokugawa period, and educationremaineda matterof
personalenterprise.
Despite this,the numberof privateschools for the lower
THE AUTHOR
University.
is Senior Teaching Fellow, School of Modem Asian Studies, Griffith
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116
MonumentaNipponica,xxxviii:2
classes in both ruraland urbanareas multipliedrapidlyas the influenceof the
merchantclass grew in the eighteenthand nineteenthcenturies.They offered
inthethreeRs, supplemented
basicinstruction
bysomekindofmoraland occupationaltraining.
The difficulty
therefore
lay not in widespreadilliteracy,
butrather
in the natureof the written
Japaneseused at the officiallevel.Years of arduous
studywererequiredto masterthe literaryformsand scriptof officialdom,
and
onlytheupperclasseshad theleisureto devoteto it.The degreeofliteracyattained
forthe smallconcernsof everydaylife
by commonerswas usuallyjust sufficient
and theperusalof popularfiction.
In the earlyMeiji period,the genbun'itchi
RU-~R movementto replacethe
unwieldyliterarystyleswitha colloquial stylebased on a standardizedformof
everyday
speechbeganto makeslowand fitful
headwayin thefaceof stiff
opposifrom
tion
bureaucratsand intellectuals,
productsof the traditionaleducation
system.'In additionto stylereform,severalotherchangeswere necessaryto
transform
writtenJapaneseinto an efficient
vehicleforcommunication,
among
thembeingscriptreform,
of a standardversionof Japaneseto
theestablishment
overcometheregionaldialectproblem,and thedevelopment
of a systemofpunctuation.The most obvious,scriptreform(kokujikairyJX*QtkA),was already
beingdiscussedin the late Tokugawa period,and duringthe firsttwentyyears
of the Meiji period a campaignaimed at replacingkanji witha simplerscript
developedparallelto thegenbun'itchi
movement.
The firstto feeltheneedforscriptreform
werestudentsoftheWest(yogakusha
who
could
not
the
ofthe26-letter
conciseness
Latinalphabet
help
noticing
Adt),
comparedwith the more than ten thousand charactersused in Japan. Arai
HakusekiS4AF, althoughnot himselfa yogakusha,wrotea book titledSeiy5
KibunNAiR$Rh,
1715,based on his interrogation
of an Italian missionarypriest,
Giovanni-Battista
Sidotti,who had landed at Yakushimain Kyushuin 1708. In
this account,Arai commentedon the remarkableconcisenessand flexibility
of
thealphabet.2His remarkswereconfinedto simpleobservationof thefact,however; staunchConfucianist
thathe was, Arai did not suggestthatJapanshould
adopt theforeignsystem.
Dutch studies(rangakuX*) influenced
the thinkingof Japanesescholarson
theirown languagebothby reinforcing
thediscoveryof the alphabet'ssimplicity
and by bringingto theirnotice criticismsof the Japaneselanguagemade by
foreigners.
Among these latterwere a Dutch book mentionedby Morishima
Chiry6 -AfibPAin Oranda Zatsuwa
;, 1787, which ridiculedthe vast
networkof charactersused in Chinese and the consequentinabilityof most
people to read theirown language,and NihonFfizokuBikJ HF {{)Gr, 1833,a
Japanesetranslationof a book publishedin Amsterdamby J. F. van Overmeer
' Furtherinformation
about thismovement 333-356.
2
is provided in my 'The GenbunitchiMoveSeiy6 Kibun BigRN, in Arai Hakuseki
ment: Its Origin,Development,and Conclu- Zensha
:
Kokusho Kank6kai
sion', in MN xxxiii (Autumn 1978), pp. Sosho, 1906,iv, p. 763.
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TWINE:
Toward Simplicity
117
Fisscheraftera sojournat theDutchtradingposton Deshimain whichhe decried
the use of ideographs,declaringthatthe Japaneseconsideredthemtheflowerof
and failedto realizetheextentto whichtheyhinderedlearning.3
writing
The studyoftheDutchlanguageitselfled severalJapanesescholarsto comment
on the remarkablesystemwherebyany word could be writtendown by usinga
in Oranda Banashi 4
simpleand concise alphabet.Got6 Rishun JA54ffi,,
1765, wrote out and brieflydescribedthe Dutch alphabet; Otsuki Gentaku
7k;JlARin RangakuKaitei Id,
1783,remarkedon how easilyit could be
learned; Shiba K6kan WINSJ&G
, in Oranda TensetsufnmRA, 1796, praisedthe
ease afforded
readingby the use of a phoneticscript.Shiba suggestedthatkanji
be replacedby kana,an idea supportedby Yamagata Bant6 LUnOR, in Yumeno
Shiro*Ik, 1802,and Honda Toshiaki 4*14f'Win Sei-ikiMonogatariIt",
1798. Honda even recommendedthe use of the Westernscriptitself,which,he
noted,was moreflexible
thankana and had theadvantageofbeinginternationally
recognized.Withtheseproposals,between1796and 1802,took shapetheembryoftheKana Club and Romaji
onicideas whichwouldlaterlead to theformation
Club.
Nothingmore was heard on the subjectof scriptreformuntil 1866, when
Maejima Hisoka '141JI presentedto the Shogun a petitioncalling for the replace-
mentof kanji by kana. From thattimeon, the idea of riddingwrittenJapanese
of its heavyburdenof kanjibeganto take root in the mindsof a smallgroupof
Some believedtheirpurposecould be accomplishedbyrestricting
intellectuals.
the
numberof kanji to reasonabledimensions,othersby usingonly kana, and still
othersby usingonlyromaji.
Moves to LimittheNumberof Kanji
Those who espousedthiscause werefew.To do so was to flyin theface of hideforkanji had formedthe basis of writtenJapanesesince
bound traditionalism,
the sixthcentury.More than merelya formof writing,the ideographswere a
culturalinstitution,
the yardstickagainstwhichscholarsmeasuredtheirerudiwas prizedforthemystiquewithwhichit investedwritTheir
tion.
verydifficulty
ing. To phase themout completelywould have involvedmuchmorethanjust a
change in writinghabits-it would have meant a completelynew attitudeto
the art and aims of writingitself,and a reversalof traditionalideas on the true
it was clear that the systemas it stood was
natureof learning.Nevertheless,
to modernization.The difficult
Chinese scriptwas just as greata
detrimental
as thearchaicliterary
barrierto understanding
stylesused in contemporary
prose.
Lower-classeducationextendedto littlemorethanthekana scripts;evenupperclass children,ostensibly
receivinga thoroughConfucianeducation,oftenmerely
learnedto recitepassagesbyheartratherthanactuallyreadand understand
them.
3 Both books are cited in Sugimoto
Tsutomu t5Az-9L t, Kindai Nihongo no
Seiritsu idif R1*ODAA,
1961, pp. 155 & 163.
Oftisha, 2nd ed.,
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118
MonumentaNipponica,xxxviii: 2
Hours of concentratedstudywere requiredto memorizecharactersbeforethe
contentsof books could be absorbed.
One of the firstto speak seriouslyof limitingthe numberof kanji in use was
in Moji no Oshie 5C*,V 1873. Realizingthat to
Fukuzawa Yukichi Nrie
phase out kanji would take time,and aware of the dangersinherentin rushing
intosweepingreforms
withoutallowingtimeto adjustto thechanges,Fukuzawa
characterswhereverpossible.
suggestedbeginningby avoidingthe moredifficult
Having calculatedthat most businesscould be carriedon witha total of just
undera thousandcharacters,he put his theoryinto practicein Moji no Oshie,
whichwas writtenforchildrenand used no morethan 928 different
kanji in its
threevolumes.
In July1872,thefirstMinisterof Education,Oki Takat6 fkI1I{, a progressive
yjgakushawho believedstronglyin the necessityfor scriptsimplification,
set
Tanaka Yoshikadoai qPWKand OtsukiShiji ti;{ilzi thetaskofcompiling
a selectionofthekanjiusedmostoftenby ordinary
peoplein everyday
affairs.
The result
of theirdeliberations
was a two-volume
ShinsenJisho f
which
dictionary,
contained3,167characters.
of kanjiafterthis.The emphasisof the
Therewerefewcalls forthe restriction
developingscriptreformmovementshiftedaway fromimprovingthe existing
systemtowardreplacingkanjialtogether
withone of thephoneticscripts.
Early Kana Advocates
The firstmove in thisdirectioncame fromMaejima Hisoka, thena translator
at the Kaiseijo PAMZ,7
whenhe presentedto the Shogun Yoshinobu in 1866 a
petitiontitledKanji Gohaishino Gi
;
callingfor the replacingof
kanjiwithkana.It began: 'The sumand substanceofa nationare theeducationof
its people.' Maejima believedthatthe path to strongnationhoodwas through
the educationof the populace as a whole. Once the Japanesepeople wereable
to learn forthemselvesabout conditionsabroad, theywould soon realizethat
theythemselveswereinferiorto no-one,and would develop the nationalpride
and self-esteem
so important
to Japan'sdevelopment
and prosperity.
One of the
majorhindrancesto the rapidspreadof thateducation,Maejima felt,was kanji,
fortheinordinateamountoftimeneededto masterthecharacterscould be better
spenton otherstudy.
Theabolitionof kanjiingeneraleducation
wouldcurtailthetimewastedin memorizingand learningto writecharacters.
For the ordinary
primary-school
child
itwouldsaveat leastthreeyears;forstudents
ofspecialized
higher
studies,
between
fiveand eightyears.Beyonddoubt,it willbe an immeasurable
advantageifthey
use the timethusgainedin scholarship
or industry,
each accordingto his own
inclination.4
4 Maejima Hisoka Jijoden rfLbq
i;, I 1956,p. 153.
Maejima Hisoka Denki Kankokai, Hayama,
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TWINE:
TowardSimplicity
119
Maejima realized that withoutkanji confusionwould resultfromthe large
numberof homophonesin the Japaneselanguage-how to distinguish
between
hashi a, X, and X, forexample-and also that word boundaries mightbe wrongly
He was confident,
interpreted.
however,thattheseproblemscould be overcomeby
of the grammarsystemand by the compilationof new dictionaries.
codification
In an 1869 document,KokubunKyJikuShikJno Hjhj @W
IAf t&, which
togetherwithHaikanjiShikensho
AffJ1^, was a riderto his petitionKokubun
Kyo~ikuno Gi ni tsukiKengiM3M1ff{ Xzaff , he set out steps to be followed in the teachingof simplified
writtenJapanesein schools. The firstphase
would last two years,duringwhicheminentscholarsin each of the fieldsof
Chinese,Western,and Japanesestudieswouldbe chosento deviseand formulate
rulesfora kana-onlywritingsystem;theywould also compilenew dictionaries.
This would be followedby a second two-yearperiodof intensepreparatory
activityduringwhich,among other things,new textbookswould be compiled,
Japaneseclassicsand books dealingwithworldaffairs
wouldbe rewritten
in kana,
and importantChineseand Westernworkswould be publishedin kana versions.
Next would come two phases of one yeareach: in the first,each districtwould
send to Tokyo a minimumof two people to studythe new grammarbooks; in
thesecond,thesepeople wouldreturnto theirhomesto disseminate
theinformation,payingparticularattentionto certainspeciallyselectedstudentswho would
thenbecomethesecondwaveofteachers.The fifth
phasewas also to lasttwoyears,
and wouldinvolvesetting
up schoolsaroundthecountry.Bytheendofthisperiod,
the importantpeople in the nationwould have finishedtheireducationin the
new scriptand the task of spreadingit to everycornerof Japancould beginin
earnestin the sixthand final,open-endedphase of Maejima's scheme.
Maejima appealed in thissubmissionforan Imperialedictto decreethat,from
thebeginningof his firstphase,official
documentsshouldbe written
in kana and
thatkana shouldbe used whereverpossiblein privatetexts.This, he felt,would
overcomemuchofthenaturaldoubtthatwouldbe entertained
bymanyregarding
the feasibilityof replacingkanji withkana in only eightyears. Maejima was
convincedthatpeople would be totallyaccustomedto usingkana by the end of
thefifth
phase. He concludedhis remarksby observingthatreplacingkanji did
notmeanthattheiruse wouldthenceforth
be proscribed.Althoughthecharacters
would not be employedin officialdocumentsor futurebooks,theycould stillbe
used forprivatebusinessifa personso desired.At colleges,theycould be studied
in specialcourses,afterthemannerof a foreignlanguage.
The meticulousdetailin whichMaejimaplannedhiscampaignrevealsthedepth
of hisconcernwithscriptreform,
a concernmostunusualin an era whenmastery
of difficult
kanji was a badge of eruditionamong scholars.His firstpetition,
Kanji Gohaishino Gi, was presentedwhentheTokugawagovernment
was stillin
power.Such wereMaejima's patriotism
and convictionthattheyled himto risk
the disapprovalof the authoritiesand the ridiculeof his colleagues.However,
his petitions(whichweresupplemented
in 1873 by another,GakuseiGoshikJni
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120
MonumentaNipponica,xxxviii:2
Y
SakidachiKokujiKairyJAinaritakiHikenNaishinsho
A
*J0PE 4f$tU
evoked no response. Traditionalattitudeswere too strongly
tA-1,VPsf
t)
entrenchedin the Confucian-educated
bureaucracy,and no doubt political
orderof priorities
at thattime.The
matterstook precedencein the government
petitionswerenot heard of by the generalpublic untiltheywerepublishedby
Maejima and KonishiNobuhachi'J<,16rg(anotherkana advocate)in 1899.5
In 1872, saddened but undauntedby the lack of officialinterest,Maejima
establisheda company,the Keim6shaFAVJ, whichbeganin 1873to publishthe
MainichiHiraganaShimbun,a newspaperwrittenentirelyin kana and intended
to make newsavailableto lower-classpeople not educatedin kanji.Publication
inpartbecausethepracticeofreadingnewspapers
ceasedinthesameyear,however,
was notyetestablished,
and also becausemanypeoplewereirkedbythecomplete
absenceofkanji.Maejima offered
thenewspaperfreewhensubscriptions
dropped
off,but dwindling
forcedhimto close it down.
capitaleventually
Maejima was one man, firedby a visioninspiredby his studyof the West of
what his countrycould become giventhe means of universaleducation,pitted
in theone fieldmostvitalto nationalunificaagainsta solidblockofconservatism
tion-a democraticwritten
his efforts
at least
language.Althoughnot successful,
servedto drawattentionto theproblem.
Nextto advocatethe use of kana was ShimizuUsabur6 ApPR]S in Hiragana
no Setsu {IN / 9,1874.Shimizu,a yogakushawho had studiedDutch,Russian,
French,German,and English,had earlierpublishedin 1860an Englishconversain hiragana.In Hiraganano
tionbook titledEngirishi
Kotobaand written
entirely
Setsu,he defendedthispractice,and arguedagainstthe theoriesof otherswho
favoredusinga mixtureofkana and kanji,or romajionly,or evencompletely
new
charactersyetto be devised.Shimizu,like Maejima a believerin educatingthe
masses,feltthattheuse ofthesimplehiraganascriptwouldbestachievethisaim.
He was also a defenderof civil rights,believingthat scriptreformwould help
improvethe lot of the commonpeople. Again like Maejima,he put his theories
intopractice.Two monthsbeforetheappearanceof Hiraganano Setsu,he publishedMonowarino Hashigo,a three-volume
translationof a German science
in hiragana,withspaces betweenwords,in a simplecolprimerwrittenentirely
loquial style.Giventhe urgentnecessityof mastering
Westerntechnologyin the
earlyMeiji period,physicswas an importantsubject,and Shimizutriedto demonstratethattrainingpeople in its principlescould be facilitatedby scriptand
stylereform.
Shimizuand Maejima had severalpointsin common.Bothmensaw thespread
of educationas the primemoverin scriptreform;both advocateda colloquial
styleused in conjunctionwithkana; bothpracticedtheirtheories;and bothwere
ardentpatriotswho saw theuse ofthekana scriptas a wayof freeing
Japanfrom
a cumbersome
foreignsystem.
5 The petitionswerepublishedin a col- KokubunKairyJKengisho nl
lection titled Maejima Hisoka Kun Kokuji
.~~~
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TWINE:
121
Toward Simplicity
A thirdadvocateof kana was Watanabe Shijir6 '~{7?)~S, whose NihonBun
1
withtheproblemof
7 it-as'?tJ,
1875,dealtprimarily
o SeiteiSuruHdhJ *E
Japanesecould
stylereformbut also mentionedscript.He suggestedthatwritten
a
with
first
styleand
simple
colloquial
be simplified
styles
literary
by
replacing
thenmakinghiraganathenationalscript,theonlykanjito be retainedbeingthose
for numerals.The knowledgecontainedin even the most academic treatises
wouldthenbe readilyaccessibleto anyonewitha knowledgeof hiragana.
Maejima, Shimizu,and Watanabewerethe threemajor early-Meijiadvocates
of kana. As theywereall followingindividualtrainsof thoughtand did not unite
in a combinedfront,theircalls forscriptreformaroused littleresponse,and it
was not untilseveralyearslaterthat a groupwas formedto worktowardthe
practicalapplicationof theirtheories.
TheKana Club
in script
In 1881,a numberof people fromvarioussphereswho wereinterested
reformcame togetherto considerthe problem.Over the followingeighteen
namedas a club in
months,threegroupswereformed.Kana no Tomo, officially
,
1882,includedamongits membersShimizuUsabur6,Mozume Takami
and Otsuki Fumihiko
, who in 1883 began publishingand editingthe
group'sownpaper,Kana noMichibiki.The membersoftheIrohaKai, inaugurated
also in 1882 aftertwo yearsof discussion,weremostlyeducators,amongthem
Miyake YonekichiLatex. Those involvedin formaleducationwerenaturally
moreenthusiastic
thanothersabout spreadingpopulareducation,and the object
achievingthis
of the Iroha Kai was to search for a way of more efficiently
objective.6The Irohabun Kai was startedin the same year by businessmen,
, a school foundedby Fukujournalists,and graduatesof Kei6 Gijuku S
zawa Yukichi.
While the generalobjectiveof the threegroupswas the same, theirmotives
and ideas on kana usage differed
markedly.Kana was notjust a simplephonetic
script.A properphoneticscriptmatchesone symbolto one sound,but kana had
alreadybeen in use for severalhundredyears,and several symbolsreflected
changesin pronunciationduringthat time-a and v\,forexample,wereboth
pronounced'i'. The problemfacingkana advocateswas how to deal withthese
discrepancies;should theybe labeled 'historicalusage' and toleratedas such,
of a one-to-onephoneticsystem?Kana no Tomo
or rejectedas contradictions
the historicalusage,
memberswerekokugakusha
Pg~t who believedin retaining
whereastheirIroha Kai counterparts,
mainlyconcernedwith smoothingthe
path of education,wantedthe simplestpossible,strictlyphoneticscript.The
journalistsand businessmenwho made up the IrohabunKai and yet a fourth
6 Kakei Itsumori
i
Kokuji Mondai no Kaiko'
in KokugotoKokubungaku
'Meiji Shoki I
MS
v: 8 (1928), pp. 93-94.
I41X1R~)
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a
WM
122
MonumentaNipponica,xxxviii:2
small club, Itsurano Oto, havingno otherreasonfor proposingscriptreform
it wouldbringthem,werenotbiasedeitherway.
thanthepracticalbenefits
were one of the motivatingforcesin the formationof both
The universities
Europeancivilizationwerespurredby
kana and romajigroups.Scholarsstudying
theirown system.KnowloftheWesternscriptto contemplate
theirobservations
edge of Westernculturespreadfroma scholasticeliteto societyat large. Some
patrioticJapanese,ponderingthe questionof how to make Japaneseculturethe
equal of European,hitupon theidea of spreadingeducationthroughsimplifying
Westernstudies,university
script.Many of thosewho had personallyundertaken
lecturersin particular,supportedromaji;othersadvocatedkana. Contemporary
aboutthingsWestern,and thosewho had visited
societywas ablaze withcuriosity
of university
respect.The pronouncements
Europe were accorded a gratifying
who enjoyeda highsocial status,carriedmuchweight,and it was under
lecturers,
theirinfluence
thateducatorsformedtheIroha Kai.
The threegroupsbandedtogetherin July1883to formtheKana no Kai. They
intothreefactionswithin
of opinion,however,splitting
retainedtheirdifferences
achievedbyunitingwas to bring
themotherclub,so thattheonlyresulteffectively
togetherundera commonname those seekingto replacekanji withkana while
stillleavingthemfreeto pursuetheirindividualtheorieswithinthe group.The
old Kana no Tomo becamethe Tsuki no Bu, the Iroha Kai and IrohabunKai,
Itsurano Oto, theHana no Bu. The
theYuki no Bu, and themiddle-of-the-road
aims of the club wereto bringabout both the use of kana as the onlynational
of vocabulary.By 1887,it had over thirtyregional
scriptand the simplification
had grownto morethantenthousand.7
branches,and totalmembership
Between1883 and 1891,the club publisheda total of six magazinesthrough
whichto disseminateits varioustheories.Firstcame Kana no Michibiki(May
1883-May1884),publishedoriginallyby Kana no Tomo, laterthe Tsuki no Bu
of the Kana Club. It was followedcloselyby Kana no Manabi (August 1883June1884),theorganoftheYuki no Bu section.WhentheYuki no Bu, Tsukino
Bu, and Hana no Bu unitedin 1884,theypublishedKana no Shirube(July1884May 1885) magazine.The union provedbrief,however.The old problemsrethistimeinto
surfacedaftera year,and the club was again dividedinternally,
theTsukino Bu, advocatesof historicalusage) and
theMoto no Tomo (formerly
wantingpurely
the Kakikata Kairy6 Bu (formerly
the Yuki no Bu, progressives
phonetickana). This lattergroupput out theKana no Zasshi (July1885-January
(July1885-June1886).After
1886),whiletheformerpublishedtheKana Shimbun
July1886,the club's onlybulletinwas Kana no Tekagami(August1886-March
1891).
As the Kana Club had been establishedwiththe aim of scriptreformrather
in a style
the articlespublishedin its magazineswerewritten
than stylereform,
based on classical Japanesegrammarand vocabulary.Club membersfailedto
7 Yamamoto Masahide [IIEE,
Buntai Hassei no Shiteki Kenkya
Kindai
4.jfj1WR, Iwanami, 1965,p. 261.
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TWINE: Toward Simplicity
123
to read whenwritten
in kana as when
realizethatliterary
stylewas just as difficult
in fact,withoutthe visual aid of kanji to help
writtenin kanji-more difficult,
mattersas planned,therefore,
they
pinpointthe meaning.Instead of simplifying
ofreadingwritten
Japanese.Not all wereblind
actuallycompoundedthedifficulty
to whatwas happening,and somemembersbeganto putforwardproposalsfora
advocatesof collodual approachcombiningscriptand stylereform.Influential
quial stylewere Miyake Yonekichi(secretaryof the Kana Club and editorof
Kana no Manabi,Kana no Shirube,and Kana noZasshi), HirataAzumao *'WAO,
Otsuki Fumihiko,and Mozume Takami; all wrotearticlescallingfor stylistic
as a prerequisite
to scriptreform.They werestimulatedno doubt
simplification
on thecolloquialstylefrom
by thenewspaperdebatebeingwagedby intellectuals
novels
about 1884 to 1889,and also by the appearanceof the firstgenbun'itchi
articlesbegan to appear in club
and translationsin 1887. Some colloquial-style
continuedto use classicalstyle.
magazinesin response,but mostcontributors
It was thisgeneralfailureto realizethat scriptand stylereformswere inseparable,coupled withthe lack of a cohesiveapproach owingto the inabilityof
theMoto no Tomo and Kakikata Kairy6Bu to agreeon a unifiedpolicyof kana
fortheclub's activitiesin 1889.Changes
usage,thatled to a declineofenthusiasm
in the editingpolicyof Kana no Tekagamiin thatyearmeantthatdiscussionsof
and generalarticles,most
scriptand styleweresuppressedin favorof scientific
of whichwere writtenin literarystyle.The internalschismsfinallyprovedtoo
strongto maintainthe Club, and althoughpublicationof Kana no Tekagami
continuedbeyond1889,thattoo came to an end on 25 March 1891.
Early Romaji Advocates
withthe
The movementforreplacingkanji withromajidevelopedconcurrently
kana movement.First to call for a romanizednational script was Nambu
Yoshikazu
to
, who presenteda petitiontitledShakokugoRon 0 i-rffl
Yamanouchi Yod6 irp'lkX,head of the Daigakury6
8 He followedthis
withtwo petitionsto the Ministerof Educationin 1871 and 1872, the second
i
titledMoji o Kaikan Suruno Gi 3T 7S 4 AI
A.
Nambu was followedby Nishi Amane NAP,a progressiveyogakushawho
spoke threeEuropeanlanguagesand had traveledto Holland as one of the first
studentssentto studyabroad. He was a foundationmemberoftheMeirokusha;,
the firstissue of its bulletin,the MeirokuZasshi P/,W7P,in March 1874,carried
his essay on romaji,'YJJio Mote Kokugoo Shosuruno Ron 447
1:5P71A
-' / A'.
In it, he stated his beliefthat learning,science, and writingplayed impor-
to the people. Given that writingwas the
tant roles in bringingenlightenment
8 A governmentoffice teaching history,
law, and arithmetic,and handlingall matters
relatingto thesesubjects.
9 An intellectualsociety formedin 1873,
numberingamong its members such wellknownfiguresas NishimuraShigeki Wffa#t,
Fukuzawa Yukichi, and Kato Hiroyuki
tV3LA.
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124
MonumentaNipponica,xxxviii:2
instrument
of the othertwo, the contemporary
state of writtenJapanesewas
ridiculous.He feltthatrecentproposalsto limitthenumberofkanjior to replace
thembykana werebothbiasedand unwieldy;thebestplan fora Japanwhichwas
feverishly
adoptingWesterncustomsand technologywas obviouslyto use the
Westernalphabet.Romaji should be introducedgradually.As a firststep, inoftheidea shouldband together
in a Romaji Club to promote
fluential
supporters
thisaim. The benefitsof usingromaji,he felt,would faroutweighthe.disadvantages; forone thing,a colloquial writtenstylewould automaticallyresultfrom
adoptionof Romanletters,as thesewerephoneticand wouldallow thereproducTo solvetheproblemof settlingon a method
tionof spokenJapanesein writing.
of expressionneithertoo refinednor too colloquial,Nishirecommended
spelling
of
words
according
to
the
rules
elegant
diction
but
pronouncing
them
in
romaji
the colloquial manner.For example,a phrasemightbe writtenin romajiin the
traditionalform'ikasamaomosirosi',but pronounced'ikasamaomosiroi',as was
normalin speech.'0 His proposal seems ratherinconsistent
withhis assurance
that romanizationwould resultin total colloquialization,but he may perhaps
have seenit as an intermediate
stepto avoid causingalarmbytoo rapida change.
It was to be elevenyearsbeforeromajiadvocatesadopted Nishi's suggestion
of bandinginto the Romaji Club. Nevertheless,
his ideas reacheda fairlylarge
numberof intellectuals,
as each editionof MeirokuZasshi sold an average of
3,205 copies." Shimizu Usabur6's 'Hiragana no Setsu' was publishedin the
seventhissue,12so thatthe two schools of scriptreformreceivedroughlyequal
coverage.
In 1876, OtsukiFumihikocontributedan article,'NihonmojiHenkaku Ron'
to Choya Shimbun09Ir.. Otsuki,one of the great scholarsof
HII-4'A#
the Japaneselanguagein the Meiji and Taish6 periods,was knownin particular
as a compilerof Japanesegrammarsand dictionaries,
and was deeplyconvinced
of the need foradequate versionsof both.In his article,he notedthathe found
the existingscriptsystema hindranceto his workof compilinggrammars.The
meaningof kanjicould changeaccordingto whichreadingswereused,and kana
letterswereinadequateas phoneticcharacters.
The bestscriptto use in a grammar,
he felt,was theRoman alphabet,whichby allowingtheseparationof vowelsand
consonantscould show pronunciationmore efficiently
than syllabickana. He
had entertained
theidea of adoptingRoman letterssincegoingto Yokohama to
studytenyearsearlier.Presumably
he saw themas of use onlyin grammarbooks,
however,as he laterbecameone of theleadersof the Kana Club.
The last importantessay on romajibeforethe formationof the Romaji Club
10 Nishi Amane WA, 'Yoji o Mote Kokugo Journalof theJapaneseEnlightenment,
Univero Shosuruno Ron' 9
1 7 1 - I,
sityof Tokyo Press, 1976, pp. 3-16.
- Yamamoto, p. 126.
in Meiji Bungaku ZenshQ F
12 MeirokuZasshi, May 1874. Braisted,pp.
Chikuma Shob6, 1967, in, p. 91. An English
translationof the essay is provided in Wil- 96-99.
liam Reynolds Braisted,tr., MeirokuZasshi:
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TWINE: Toward Simplicity
125
ofthemovement
and thebeginning
properwas 'Romajio Mote Nihongoo Tsuzuru
i
7 W11>, whichappearedin TJyJGakugeiZasshi X4*
Setsu' 7@5 pi *El
Add, Nos. 7 & 8, in Apriland May 1882. It was writtenby Yatabe Ryokichi
A, a botanistand pioneerof the new styleof poetrywhichappearedin
!f
theMeiji period.In it,he advocatedthe adoptionof a romajiscriptand a written
stylebased on the speechused in Tokyo.
The Romaji Club
In 1884,supportersof the adoptionof romajibegan to discussjoiningforcesto
for the removalof kanji. In Julyof that year,Toyama
fightmore effectively
Masakazu AIE- published'Romajio ShuchJSuruMono ni Tsugu'WRPt-tK
~ K"
of a club, and on 2
-S
? in Thy5 GakugeiZasshi,callingfortheformation
Decembera meetingattendedbyoverseventy
peoplewas held to discussstrategy.
They includedToyama (who gave a talk on the objectivesof forminga Romaji
Club), Yatabe, Terao Hisashi X14X, and Yamakawa Kenjir6 [UlIfIjR1. The
Ramaji Club was officially
inauguratedon 17 January1885.
Fortymemberswerechosenas a committeeto inquireinto romajiusage. Six
ofthem-Toyama,Terao, Basil Hall Chamberlain,
C. S. Eby,Yatabe, and Kanda
a motionand publishedit underthe title'Romaji nite
Naibu Offl)-lJ'-drafted
. It containednineteenclauses,one
Nihongono Kakikata'dexte-C F!*-I?
of whichstatedthatromajiusage shouldbe based on thepronunciation
of Tokyo
residentswithstandardeducation.In June1885,theRomajiZasshi was launched
club bulletin;it remainedin publicationuntilDecember1892.Most
as theofficial
of the essaysand otheritemsthereinwerewrittenin romaji,but,as in the case
ofKana Club publications,
thedifficult
kambun-kuzushi
A:PA stylewas used until
about 1887.
Most membersoftheClub had studiedforeign
languages.WhenTokyoImperial
was foundedin 1877,it was staffedalmostentirely
the
University
by foreigners,
fewexceptionsincludingToyama,Yatabe, and KikuchiDairokuAt~*. English
was used as themediumof instruction.
Studentsseeingtheforeignscriptin daily
use could not help noticingits advantages,and it was naturalthattheyshould
lateradvocateits adoptionas theJapanesescript.
In June1885,membership
of the Romaji Club totaled2,908,of whom2,734
wereJapaneseand 174 wereforeigners.
By March 1887,thereweretwenty-nine
in
the
branches
to
main
regional
addition
groupin Tokyo,and the total membershiphad increasedto 6,876; by theend of 1888,thisnumberhad risento over
tenthousand.13
Like theKana Club, the Romaji Club was dividedovertheissue of usage.An
investigative
committeehad decided on the Hepburn system,but Tanakadate
AikitsufEIrPM
disagreed;the HepburnsystememployedRoman lettersas
theywereused in foreignlanguages,whereashe wantedto finda wayto use them
13
Yamamoto, pp. 313-14.
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126
MonumentaNipponica,xxxviII:2
in faithfully
reproducing
the soundsof Japanese.He and his followerstherefore
broke away fromthe main group and formedthe Romaji Sinsisha.Using the
systemtheyfavored,thegrouppublishedRomajiSinsifromMay 1886untilAugust
1890.
Romajisupporters
writing
in RomajiZasshi fellintothesame trapas had their
counterparts
in the kana movementin thattheymerelychangedtheirscriptto
romajiwhilecontinuing
to use traditionalliterary
styles.Again,thisachievedthe
veryreverseof theirobjectives;insteadof becomingsimpler,writtenJapanese
to read withoutthe visualaid of kanjiin working
actuallybecamemoredifficult
out the meaningsof complexChinesewords.It was an oversightwhichwas to
of the moveretardtheirprogressseverely,and whichfurnished
non-supporters
Even thecolumnof miscellaneousitemsof the
mentwithmaterialforcriticism.
earlyRomajiZasshi was writtenin kambun-kuzushi,
althoughthevocabularywas
simplerthan thatused in the essaysin the main body of the magazine.Not all
members,however,wereunawareof the problem.A small groupof progressive
thinkers,
realizingthatordinaryClub membersweremakingheavyworkof the
romajiarticlespublishedby scholars,began to push for the use of colloquial
stylein conjunctionwiththe Roman alphabet.
FirstcameTaguchiUkichiEHn 9P", whose'NipponKaika no Seishitsu'H VMWL
e)
in Romaji Zasshi fromJune 1885 to
t1W was publishedin seven installments
June1886.The essaywas written
in romaji,in colloqial styleusingthe 'de gozarimasu' termination.
Taguchi criticizedthe kambun-kuzushi
style,arguingthat a
He saw a
writingsystemshouldbe uniformwithspeechforeasy comprehension.
combinationoftheRoman scriptwithcolloquialstyleas theideal formofwritten
convenient
Japaneseforthefuture.Four areas whereromajiwouldbe particularly
wereindustry,
would allow the use of the
wherebeingable to writehorizontally
convenientItalian industrialbookkeepingmethod; technology,whereartisans
such as carpentersand plastererswould be able to recordthe specialjargon of
theirtradeswhichcould not be writtenin kanji; science,whereclaritywas importantto the expressionof ideas in practicalareas such as physicsand chemistry;and suchmiscellaneoustasksas settingup printtype,writing
letters,and so
on. The one possibledisadvantagethathe concededwas thatJapaneseliterature,
havingbeenwritten
withkanjiforso long,mightsuffer
duringthestageoftransitionto romaji.Taken as a whole,however,a romanizedcolloquialstylewouldbe
infinitely
simplerand moreconvenient
thankambun-kuzushi,
and wouldbe much
morein tunewithmodernsociety.
Nishi Amane had said basicallythe same thingin 'Yoji o Mote Kokugo o
Shosuruno Ron' in 1874,but Taguchiwas the firstmemberof the Romaji Club
itselfto speak out in favorof stylereform,
not onlyadvocatingit but illustrating
it withthe styleof his own essay. He followed'NipponKaika no Seishitsu'with
'Romaji niteKakikatano Shinkufai' -,,4 r~g tj
ITJ, anothercolloquialstyleromajiessaypublishedin R5majiZasshi in August1886in whichhe identified
certaindifficulties
thathe had encountered
withromanization.
Particularly
annoy-
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TWINE:
Toward Simplicity
127
ingwas theneedto write'watakushi'and 'gozarimasu'so often,and Taguchisuggestthatthesewordsbe abbreviatedto 'w' and 'g', althoughstillreadaloud infull.
issueofRomajiZasshi in October1885carriedtwoessays,both
The seventeenth
theme: 'Romaji
writtenin a romanizedcolloquial style,on the style-reform
12
-a
o AmanekuYo ni Okonawasuruni tsukiIken'
tL
t f t-;5
S
by Kusano Mompei V-V-YP,,and 'R5maji Zasshi no Kairy5o Nozomu'
ROMAJI ZASSHI Add Add
by Amagai Yuzuru. The firststatedthattheJapanese
untilkanjiwereabolished.Kanji were
languagecould neverdevelopsatisfactorily
essentially
aliento thenatureof Japanese,whereasromaji,beingphoneticcharacters,could be used to reproduceany language.Even romajiwould be useless,
were also ousted along with kanji. Kusano
however,unless kambun-kuzushi
thespreadof romanization,
thefirstand most
suggestedseveralstepsto facilitate
importantbeingthe developmentof a colloquial writtenstyle.Otherproposals
fromlecturesbyfamouspeopleand publishing
includedtakingnotesin shorthand
them; pushingfor romajieducationfor children;and publishingromajibooks
in a simplestyleformembersof themiddleand lowerclasses.
written
In his essay,Amagai put forwardtwo suggestionsforencouragingthe use of
romaji.One was to simplify
thestyleof articlesappearingin RomajiZasshi,most
of whichwere crammedwithdifficult
Chinese words. As many of these were
themled to confusionovermeaning.CriticsoftheR6maji
homonyms,
romanizing
Club,he noted,wereamusedthatitsmemberscontinuedto use Chinesevocabulary
whilescorningkanji.Secondly,thecolumnsofmiscellaneousitemsshouldcontain
more articlesin romaji.Amagai suggestedWesternnovels and recentJapanese
novels such as TsubouchiShoy6's JTF
Tosei Shosei Katagi '
as
well as articlessuchas Taguchi's'NipponKaika no Seishitsu'.
The fourthwarningcame froma foreignmemberof the Club, the Englishman
Basil Hall Chamberlain,thena lecturerin linguistics
in theliterature
department
of Tokyo ImperialUniversity.
On 19 March 1887,he gave a lecturetitled'Genbun'itchi'at the second generalmeetingof the Club, and thiswas publishedin
R5majiZasshi in May. Chamberlainlikenedthe Romaji Club to a shiptryingto
steera safecoursethroughunchartedwatersfullof hiddenreefs.The mostdangerousreef,and the one whichcould well sinkthe ship,was the stylehabitually
used by club members,whichbothJapaneseand foreigners
alike had difficulty
in
were new Chinese words whichhad been
understanding.
Particularlydifficult
inventedto describedevicesimportedsince the Restoration,for nobodycould
understand
thesetermswithoutseeingthekanji.To takeawaythecluesoffered
by
of writtenJapanese.The solution
kanji was merelyto compoundthe difficulty
was to use a colloquial style.Everycivilizedcountryfollowedthispractice,yet
Japanesescholars,taughtto value stylisticcomplexityas a mark of erudition,
wereashamedof simplicity-asituationsimilarto thatin medievalEurope,when
scholarswrotein Latin not understoodby thecommonpeople.
Chamberlaindid not advocatethe adoptionof colloquial stylesimplyforthe
sake ofapingtheWest.He saw itas theonlysensiblecourseto followifeducation
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128
MonumentaNipponica,xxxviii:2
was to be spreadamongthe people. Not a greatdeal of workwas involved,he
asserted;thecolloquialwas thereto hand ifonlytheprejudiceagainstit could be
overcome.He suggestedthatthemembersoftheRomaji Club beginat once on a
programofcolloquializationbyfollowing
theexampleofMoliere,whowas said to
If the Romaji
have read his worksto his servantsto ensuretheirintelligibility.
Club resolvedto adopt thispracticefora year,newspaperssuchas theNichinichi
ShimbunH HIf1i4,always favorablydisposed toward the Club, would be encouragedto followsuit.
Partlyin responseto these theoriesand partlyin responseto the growing
movementin societyat large,theredid in factoccur
influence
of thegenbun'itchi
to colloquialstylein theessayspublishedin Romaji
a changefromkambun-kuzushi
Zasshi afterApril1887.Manylecturetextswerealso publishedin colloquialstyle
in responseto thedemandby Club membersforusefularticles,and thesecame to
outnumberoriginalcolloquial works.The trendto colloquializationwas thus
morepronouncedin the bulletinof the Romaji Club than in thoseof the Kana
Club.
In 1892,nationalistfeelingin Japanreacheda highpointas a reactionagainst
theover-enthusiastic
adoptionofWesterncustoms,whichwas seenas detrimental
to Japanesetradition.The Romaji Club fellvictimto thisattitudeand was disbanded in Decemberof thatyear,althoughsporadicdiscussionson the use of
romajicontinuedformanyyears.
OutsideAttitudesto theKana and Romaji Clubs
Outsidethescript-reform
thereappearedin newspapersand magazines
movement,
and manyof
a spate of essaysdealingwiththe need forstylistic
simplification,
these touched on the Kana and Romaji Clubs. Kanda Takahira OEI*F,, in
'Bunshoron
o Yomu'5C*A 7 RA, 1885,accused the clubs of takinga superficial
to prefacescriptreformwithstyle
approachto the problemin not attempting
reform,a view that FukuchiGen'ichir6Wbt1-Z]S supportedin threeeditorials
publishedin theNichinichi
Shimbun:'Bunsh5no Shinka'5ic*'vWEL, 1885; 'Bunsh5
Q
, 1886; and 'Bunsh5no Kairy5'
Kairy5no Mokuteki':P kAv)H
k
1887.Fukuchiapprovedof theclubs' aims as one elementin a plan forsimplifying modernJapanese,but thoughtthat the essentialconvenienceof kana and
romajiwould be lost unlessthesewritingscriptswereused in a colloquial style.
An editorialin the Meiji Nipp5 FatsHQ on 17 November1885 stressedthe need
fora genbun'itchi
style,addingas a corollarythatits absenceactivelyprevented
the Romaji and Kana Clubs fromachievingtheirobjectives.
In NihonBunshdron
HlASEM 1886,SuematsuNorizumi*1OM analyzedthe
prosand consofkanaand romaji,and offered
theirsupporters
adviceon improving
theirtechnique.For kana to be effective,
words
shouldbe separated
he proposed,
by spaces (not thitherto
done), capitallettersand punctuationshouldbe used to
clarifymeaning,and strictly
phonetickana usage should replacethe historical
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TWINE:
Toward Simplicity
129
of opinion,fix
method.He warnedKana Club membersto settletheirdifferences
on a definiteand coherentapproach to usage, and plan gradual steps for its
application.
While Roman lettersneeded no such remedies,Suematsusuggested,theytoo
The numberofromajilettersneededto writea sentencewas
wereas yetimperfect.
double thatrequiredby kana syllables;to Japaneselong used to theconciseness
ofkanji,romajiseemedunwieldy.In thisrespect,theRoman alphabetwas inferior
to both kanji and kana. It was not necessary,however,to make a finalchoice
taskbeingto phase out
betweenkana and romajiat thattime,themostimportant
kanji. Both phoneticscriptshad advantagesand disadvantages.Both shouldbe
allowedto develop,and thefinaldecisionleftto naturalselection.Meanwhile,a
colloquial stylewas a necessaryadjunct.
An outright
rejectionoftheaimsofthetwoclubscame fromSugiuraShigetake
dI
g 1887. Both scripts,he wrote,
V?'AAIJ, in Nihonno GengoBunshl
to apply and wereactuallyharmfulin thattheycompoundedthe
weredifficult
inconvenienceof writtenJapanese.Their supporterswere not realisticin their
outlook;theydid notrealizethatitwas impossibleto getridofkanji,or thateven
supposingtherewerebenefitsto be reaped fromdoing so, the task would take
centuriesto accomplish.Japan'smosturgentneedwas a simplestyleforeveryday
use ratherthana phoneticscript.
The commonthemelinkingall the foregoingattackswas the need for style
tack by suggestingthe existingwriting
reform.Other criticstook a different
systembe continuedin a modifiedform.Once again, the idea of reducingthe
r
was Yano Fumio
numberof kanjiin use surfaced.One of its supporters
who in NihonBuntaiMoji ShinronF*l 4;*Zrir, 1886,statedhis opposition
both to colloquial styleand to a completelyphoneticscript.The best stylefor
withfuriganato help withreadings.Such
Japan,he argued,was kambun-kuzushi
a stylewouldretainthevisualcluesto meaningafforded
bykanji,thelack ofwhich
In orderto transform
thisinto
handicappedreadersof kana and romajiwritings.
a generalstyleunderstoodby all, however,drasticreductionsin the numberof
intotwo categories.The first
kanjiwouldhave to be made. Yano dividedwriting
included governmentnotices,textbooks,newspapers,and letters-documents
The upperlimiton thenumber
was ofparamountimportance.
whoseintelligibility
of kanjiused forthesepurposesshouldbe threethousandof the mostcommon
His secondcathundredor less wouldprobablysuffice.
forms;in practice,fifteen
essays,specializedbooks, histories,and biographiesegorywas literary-novels,
and here,too,thelimitshouldbe threethousandkanji.Yano had foundthisnumber
in his own experienceto expresseven the most abstruseconcepts.He
sufficient
concludedbydeploringtherecentconfusionoverscriptand styleform.It was imit.
portant,he believed,to decideon a firmpolicyand beginat once to implement
Yano's main objectionto the use of eitherphoneticscriptwas the amountof
timeneededto make it a viable option.It would take yearsto accustompeople
to usingthem,and Japancould ill affordthetimeor confusion.Whybotherwith
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130
MonumentaNipponica,xxxviii:2
suchunwieldyschemeswhenthe existingsystemcould be tailoredto fitmodern
needswitha minimumof timeand fusssimplyby reducingthenumberof kanji?
Kanjiwerenotaltogether
bad whenused in moderation,
Yano asserted;combined
withkana,theymade an acceptableand, moreto thepoint,familiarmediumof
communication.
From the point of view of scriptreform,Yano's approach was perhapsthe
most convincingand practicalof all the theoriescirculatedat that time,and
pointedin thedirectioneventually
taken.It took intoconsideration
therealneeds
of the Japanesepeople and theurgencyof the problemratherthanchasingafter
attractivebut impracticalideas of full-scalechange.Yano followedFukuzawa's
lead in advocatinga policyofmoderation,
makingthebestof availableresources.
Later,as the editorof YzibinHichi ShimbunWRIM S, he publishedseveral
articlesexpandingon the same theme,and on 16 September1887,announced
thatthe newspaperwould from1 Octoberadopt a limitof threethousandkanji
inessays,miscellaneous
items,and so forth.Exceptionsto therulewouldbe novels,
proclamations,
and geographicalnames.'SanzenjiJibiki'- f-t
I was published
as a supplement
to the 27 Novemberissue.
Supportfor his ideas came from'N.N.', the initialsused by the author of
'NihonBunsh5ron'FiROZN, a four-part
essaypublishedin KyjikuZasshiiWt*:w
fromMay to July1886. N.N. at the same timecriticizedthe Kana and Romaji
Clubs forattempting
to abolish kanji whilestillreproducingChinesewordsin
phoneticscript,makingreadingtwiceas difficult
as before.Kanji had becomean
integralpartofwritten
Japaneseand could notbe just tossedaside aftercenturies
of use. Yano's idea of a three-thousand
limit,he believed,was soundand needed
no timeto implement.
People shoulduse kanjiand kana in conjunction,striving
to choose onlythe most commonChinesecharacters.No otherway of writing
shouldbe used in dailybusiness.
Furtherparingdown of the numberof kanjicame about throughthe Ministry
ofEducation.The 'JinJ6
Shigakki Chogen'
R, 1887,setthenumberto
be used in primary-school
textbooksat two thousand,a state of affairswhich
lasteduntil1900,whenthe 'Shigakki Rei Shiki Kisoku'i14
ii8P0'J further
loweredthelimitto abouttwelvehundred.14Ultimately,
followinga reportbythe
Kokugo Shingi Kai
1
15
the governmentdecreed in 1946 that the number
of kanjifordailyuse be restricted
to 1,851.
Discussionof scriptreformcontinuedformanyyearsafterthe disbandingof
theKana and Romaji Clubs,becomingparticularly
vehementduringtheupsurge
of nationalspiritfollowingthevictoryin the Sino-Japanese
war of 1894-1895.A
freshspateofcallsfortheabolitionor reductionofkanjiappearedinjournalssuch
as Seinenbun' 1S; and KokuaakuAg. 16 Perhapsone ofthebestofthesearticles,
Sugimoto,pp. 339-40.
A body set up the governmentin 1934
to investigate methods of improving the
language and of promotingits teaching.
16 Okada Masami
RIMJIE),'Kanji Zenpai
14
15
o RonjiteKokubunKokugo Kokuji no Shirai
nioyobu'ATh~ tCXM MPIP
Q 4A;iK
MT OD
S, in Teikoku Bungaku DiNSC, October
1896, p. 18.
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TWINE:
Toward Simplicity
131
one whichsummedup thearguments
and discussedthevariousschoolsofthought,
was 'ShinkokujiKakutei no Jiki' VrMV0(D4S,
1898, by Inoue Tetsujir6
a philosopherand lecturerat Tokyo ImperialUniversity,
who also
L1tWR$,
of new-style
pioneeredtheintroduction
poetry.
Inoue prefacedhis argumentby drawinga gloomypictureof thecontemporary
stateof writtenJapanese.There was a profusionof scripts.Katakana had fixed
forms,but bothhiraganaand kanjicould be written
as square or cursivecharacforordinarypeople to read. Reading
ters,the cursiveformsbeingverydifficult
kanji was complicatedby the severaldifferent
pronunciations
accordedto each
character.Script,whichshould be merelya means to an end, had become an
object of learningin itself,a situationwhichwas seriouslyimpedingJapan's
attemptsto catchup withtheWest.
Unlikemostothercriticsofkanji,Inoue did notregardthecharactersas altogetheruseless.Theyprovidedvisualcluesto meaning;theirvigorouspronunciation
made a welcomecontrastto the somewhateffeminate-sounding
nativeJapanese;
and theywereconcise,a major virtuein a busysociety.On the debitside,their
on memory.A personhad to have memorizeda
successfuluse dependedentirely
characterbeforebeingable to pronounceit,and thistooktime;whereas
particular
in theWest,masteryof a simplealphabetwas sufficient
to allow any wordin the
languageto be read. Kanji could not showJapanesegrammatical
inflexions,
and
theyweremonosyllabic,whereasJapanesewas polysyllabic.They could not be
conveniently
used as phoneticcharactersforforeignnames,and therewerean
amazingnumberof homophonesamongthem.
If scriptreformwas everto take place, Inoue felt,the timeat whichhe wrote
was opportune.As a resultof the Sino-Japanesevictory,thingsChinesewerein
low standingin Japaneseeyes, and therewere many foreigners
then livingin
Japanwho could adviseon romaji.Japanshouldcapitalizeon theopportunity
to
getridof kanji,but how was it to be done? Inoue consideredthevariousoptions
available.
He did not agree withthose who advocated a reductionin the numberof
and to reducethe number
kanji.Chineseproseand poetryhad a largefollowing,
ofcharacters
wouldproducea deleterious
effect
on literature.
future
Furthermore,
would doubtlessrequirecomplicatedexplanations,where
scientific
developments
difficult
forthe government,
let
kanjiwould proveuseful.It would be extremely
alone individualscholars,to prohibitthe accustomedmediumof expression.
Usingkana letterswouldnot helptheprogressof Japaneseculture;theyresulted
in prose of a lengthunacceptableto busypeople,and theycould not be used to
betweenEnglish
representall sounds.They could not, forexample,distinguish
'1' and 'r', makingit difficult
to reproduceforeignnames.Roman letters,on the
otherhand,wereideal forthispurpose,and wouldbe particularly
apt forforeign
wordsin technicalbooks. But they,too, had theirpitfalls;theywereevenmore
twicethenumberof symbols,and theymade it hard
thankana,requiring
lengthy
Inoue wrote,
to distinguish
betweenhomophones.Furthermore,
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MonumentaNipponica,xxxviii:2
132
thedevelopment
ofthehumanmindandhasa closeconnection
Scriptaccompanies
of a people'sspirit.It is therefore
withthehistory
of thedevelopment
different
suchas railways
fromotherforeign
and steamships.
to abolish
imports
Suddenly
ofideassinceourancestors'
thescript
whichhasgrownalongwiththedevelopment
different
timesand replaceitwiththeentirely
theinner
romajiwouldbe to destroy
foundation
stoneofthenationand do violenceto thepeople'sfeelings.17
These difficulties
had led to thedeclineof the Romaji Club, and had also given
riseto a fourthproposal,whichwas to createa new scriptaltogether.Shiratori
Kokan
Nj
A,
and Tanaka Hideho Elrpq
suggestedsimilarsystemscombining
ideographswith phoneticcharacters.Inoue himself,however,believedthat it
wouldbe bestto use an existingscript,and suggestedthatkanaletterswouldmake
a workablesystemiftheywereabbreviated,
punctuated,and written
horizontally
to facilitateinsertionof Westernscientific
termsand names. Their one great
advantageoverromajiwas thattheyhalvedthenumberof symbolsneeded.
Inoue's essaypresentedall sides of the problemin an impartialand thorough
way.Perhapsbetterthanany other,it summedup theneed fora simplified
script
and presentedthepros and cons of thealternatives.
In thelongrun,as we know
of theexistingscriptwhichwon out over
today,it was thepolicyof modification
themoreradicalsuggestions
forchange.Kanji,despitetheirattendantdifficulties,
seemedpreferable
to otherscriptsbyvirtueoftheirsemanticcontentand brevity,
and also because of theirlongstanding
traditionin Japan. Reduced in number
and supplemented
kana scripts,theyweremoldedinto an efficient
by simplified
means of writingJapanese,withinthe capabilitiesof anyonepossesinga highschool education.
The Meiji-periodcontroversy
over scriptreformwas inevitablein the light
of contemporary
in Japanesesociety.Whilethe advocatesof kana
developments
or romajimaynothave achievedtheirindividualaims,theyperformed
a valuable
serviceto the nationby drawingattentionto the problemof Japan'sunwieldy,
elitistwriting
system.To simplify
scriptwithoutalso simplifying
thestyleit would
be used to reproduce,however,was counterproductive.
When the scriptreform
and stylereformmovements
realizedtheirmutualdependenceand joined forces,
thewaywas at lastopento forgea newwritten
fortherequirements
languagefitted
of a modernstate.
17
Tokyo5
Gakushikaiin
Zasshi
RI
F-u
t,, 20 (1898), pp. 368-69.
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