was the cultural and intellectual movement of Japanese

Romanticism Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century. The purpose of the movement was to advocate for the importance of subjec ...

during the

Taishō era The was a period in the history of Japan dating from 30 July 1912 to 25 December 1926, coinciding with the reign of Emperor Taishō. The new emperor was a sickly man, which prompted the shift in political power from the old oligarchic group ...

, influenced by European Romanticism. The

kanji are logographic Chinese characters, adapted from Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script, used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are ...

for ''Roman'' is an ''

ateji In modern Japanese, principally refers to kanji used to phonetically represent native or borrowed words with less regard to the underlying meaning of the characters. This is similar to in Old Japanese. Conversely, also refers to kanji used s ...

'' first introduced by

Natsume Sōseki , born , was a Japanese novelist. He is best known for his novels ''Kokoro'', ''Botchan'', ''I Am a Cat'', ''Kusamakura (novel), Kusamakura'' and his unfinished work ''Light and Darkness (novel), Light and Darkness''. He was also a scholar of Br ...

. According to the 2009 edition of ''Pocketbook of Taisho Romanticism - The World of Nostalgic & Modern -'' written by Keiko Ishikawa, who works at the in

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

, the two words "Taishō" and "Roman" were combined because

Yumeji Takehisa was a Japanese poet and painter. He is known foremost for his ''Nihonga'' illustrations of '' bijin'', beautiful women and girls, though he also produced a wide variety of works including book covers, serial newspaper illustrations, ''furoshiki ...

's works of art in the Taishō era was introduced and described as "romantic" in 1974, the 90th anniversary of his birth. Ishikawa reported findings of her research in the 2009 edition of the Pocketbook, stating that the term was first used at the "Taishō Roman" exhibition in October 1978 held at the

Suntory Museum of Art The is an arts museum located in Tokyo Midtown, Roppongi, Tokyo. It is owned by the Suntory corporation. The collection theme of the art works is "Art in life" and they mainly have Japanese antiques. The museum houses more than 3,000 cultural ob ...

in Tokyo. However, she rewrote in the 2021 edition of the Pocketbook that the term was established in the 1970s, due to earlier usage. Takehisa was a popular painter and poet in the Taishō era, and often cited as a figure representing the culture of Taishō Roman. According to ''Yumeji Takehisa “Senoo Sheet Music” Cover Art Complete Collection'' by Minami Takehisa (Yumeji Takehisa's granddaughter) and Naoki Ōhira, he contributed more than 270 cover arts and also 24 lyrics to ", or the

sheet music Sheet music is a handwritten or printed form of musical notation that uses musical symbols to indicate the pitches, rhythms, or chords of a song or instrumental musical piece. Like its analogs – printed Book, books or Pamphlet, pamphlets ...

books printed by Senoo Music Publishing Company, and his artwork was a major factor in the popularity and commercial success of the books.

References

Submovements of Romanticism Taishō era in culture Japanese aesthetics Japanese subcultures {{Japan-hist-stub

See also

References