''5 Pairs of Shoes'' is a series of essays of

travel literature The genre of travel literature encompasses outdoor literature, guide books, nature writing, and travel memoirs. One early travel memoirist in Western literature was Pausanias, a Greek geographer of the 2nd century CE. In the early modern pe ...

written by

Tekkan Yosano was the pen-name of Yosano Hiroshi, a Japanese author and poet active in late Meiji, Taishō, and early Shōwa period Japan. His wife was fellow author Yosano Akiko. Cabinet minister and politician Kaoru Yosano is his grandson. Early life Yo ...

and his students Mokutaro Kinoshita,

Kitahara Hakushu Kitahara (written: ) is a Japanese surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Hakushū Kitahara is the pen-name of , a Japanese ''tanka'' poet active during the Taishō and Shōwa periods of Japan. He is regarded as one of the most po ...

Hirano Banri Hirano (, the kanji character 平 is for " flat, plain, calm" and the kanji character 野 is for "field") can be a Japanese surname. The same combination of kanji characters read as "Heiya" can mean a plain or a flat land. People named Hirano in ...

and Yoshii Isamu, which was published in 1907 in a

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

newspaper. Because all five authors later became famous poets, the essays aroused an interest in culture related to

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...

and

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesu ...

. In 1907, the five poets traveled through northern

Kyushu is the third-largest island of Japan's five main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands ( i.e. excluding Okinawa). In the past, it has been known as , and . The historical regional name referred to Kyushu and its surroun ...

and later published 29 essays in the

newspaper ''Tokyo 26 Shimbun''. The writers were not identified in the newspaper. On August 9, they travelled on foot for a distance of 32 km to Oe-mura, Amakusa,

Kumamoto is the capital city of Kumamoto Prefecture on the island of Kyushu, Japan. , the city has an estimated population of 738,907 and a population density of 1,893 people per km2. The total area is 390.32 km2. had a population of 1,461,0 ...

. They stayed at Takasagoya Inn. On August 10, they met French Catholic Father Frederic Louis Garnier (1860-1941）, who preached

Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

in Amakusa from the late

Meiji period The is an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868 to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonization ...

to the early

Shōwa period Shōwa may refer to: * Hirohito (1901–1989), the 124th Emperor of Japan, known posthumously as Emperor Shōwa * Showa Corporation, a Japanese suspension and shock manufacturer, affiliated with the Honda keiretsu Japanese eras * Jōwa (Heian ...

. On August 29, they were invited to a party at a Japanese restaurant on Lake Ezu, Kumamoto and enjoyed a boat cruise. Several reporters attended the party. The essays contain the entirety of an otemoyan that was sung by a girl.''5 Pairs of Shoes'', Goninzure, Iwanami Bunko, 2007,

References

*''Five Pairs of Shoes.'' Yosano, Tekkan, et al. in Meiji Bungaku Zenshuu, 94, Chikuma Shobou, 1974. *''Five Pairs of Shoes'', Noda, Utaro, Nihon Kyoudo Bungei Sousho Kankoukai. 1978. *''Five Pairs of Shoes'', Goninzure, Iwanami Bunko, Tokyo, 2007. *''Five Pairs of Shoes and Kumamoto, Amakusa'' Hamana, S. 1983.

Footnotes

External links

Kumamoto Literature Walk, in Japanese
Japanese literature 1907 essays Japanese essays Japanese short stories Kumamoto Works originally published in Japanese newspapers Kumamoto Prefecture {{japan-lit-stub