''Taiyō'' (太陽; ''The Sun'') was a

literary Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, plays, and poems. It includes both print and digital writing. In recent centuries, ...

and general interest magazine that existed between 1895 and 1928, which covered the

Meiji Meiji, the romanization of the Japanese characters 明治, may refer to: Japanese history * Emperor Meiji, Emperor of Japan between 1867 and 1912 ** Meiji era, the name given to that period in Japanese history *** Meiji Restoration, the revolution ...

and Taishō eras. The magazine was published in Tokyo, Japan. It is a significant publication which contains mostly

literary criticism A genre of arts criticism, literary criticism or literary studies is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical analysis of literature's ...

, samples of

Japanese literature Japanese literature throughout most of its history has been influenced by cultural contact with neighboring Asian literatures, most notably China and its literature. Early texts were often written in pure Classical Chinese or , a Chinese-Japa ...

, and translations of literary works by international authors. The magazine was one of the publications of

Hakubunkan is a Japanese publishing company founded in 1887 amidst the wealth and military prosperity of the Meiji era. Hakubunkan entered the publishing arena by printing a nationalist magazine as well as expanding into printing, advertising, paper manuf ...

that made it well-known in the country.

History and profile

''Taiyō'' was founded in 1895, and the first issue appeared in January 1895. Its publisher was Hakubunkan. It was one of the most successful brands of the company. The magazine targeted

middle-class The middle class refers to a class of people in the middle of a social hierarchy, often defined by occupation, income, education, or social status. The term has historically been associated with modernity, capitalism and political debate. Commo ...

people who were middle school graduates, men and women. Editors of ''Taiyō'' included

Yoshino Sakuzō Yoshino may refer to: * Yoshino cherry, another name for ''Prunus × yedoensis'', a flowering cherry tree * Japanese cruiser ''Yoshino'', a protected cruiser of the Imperial Japanese Navy Places * Yoshino, Nara, a town located in Yoshino Distr ...

(1878-1933), Takayama Chogyū (1871–1902) and Hasegawa Tenkei (1876–1940). It was instrumental in making

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 ...

and naturalism more popular in the Japanese literary circles. Therefore, the magazine featured translations of the work by major figures of these literary approaches, including

Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic who is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales involving mystery and the macabre. He is widely re ...

Gustave Flaubert Gustave Flaubert ( , ; ; 12 December 1821 – 8 May 1880) was a French novelist. He has been considered the leading exponent of literary realism in his country and abroad. According to the literary theorist Kornelije Kvas, "in Flaubert, realis ...

Guy de Maupassant Henri René Albert Guy de Maupassant (, ; ; 5 August 1850 – 6 July 1893) was a 19th-century French author, celebrated as a master of the short story, as well as a representative of the naturalist school, depicting human lives, destinies and s ...

Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, and essayist. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced," with William Fau ...

Maurice Maeterlinck Maurice Polydore Marie Bernard Maeterlinck (29 August 1862 – 6 May 1949), also known as Count/Comte Maeterlinck from 1932, was a Belgian playwright, poet, and essayist who was Flemish but wrote in French. He was awarded the 1911 Nobel Prize in ...

and

Leo Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy Tolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; ,Throughout Tolstoy's whole life, his name was written as using Reforms of Russian orthography#The post-revolution re ...

. Major naturalist Japanese authors whose works were published in the magazine were Tokuda Shūsei,

Tayama Katai Katai Tayama (田山花袋 ''Tayama Katai'', 22 January 1872 – 13 May 1930, born Rokuya Tayama) was a Japanese author. His most famous works include ''Inaka Kyōshi'' (田舎教師, "Rural Teacher," also translated "Country Teacher") and ...

and

Shimazaki Tōson Shimazaki (written: , or ) is a Japanese surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Aki Shimazaki (born 1954), Canadian writer and translator *, Japanese idol and singer *, Japanese speed skater *, Japanese volleyball player *, Japanese v ...

. Japanese author Shimizu Shikin had a

column A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member ...

in the magazine for nearly five years. It was entitled Hanazono Zuihitsu (), and she used her real name, Kozai Toyoko, in the column. The content of ''Taiyō'' was comprehensive and was not limited to literary works. The magazine was also influential in using innovative technologies such as

photography Photography is the visual arts, art, application, and practice of creating images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is empl ...

and

illustrations An illustration is a decoration, interpretation, or visual explanation of a text, concept, or process, designed for integration in print and digitally published media, such as posters, flyers, magazines, books, teaching materials, animations, vi ...

. It frequently carried articles on political, military, economic, and social commentary, the

Imperial family A royal family is the immediate family of monarch, monarchs and sometimes their extended family. The term imperial family appropriately describes the family of an emperor or emperor, empress, and the term papal family describes the family of ...

, women, commerce, the

natural sciences Natural science or empirical science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer ...

and

cultural trends The bandwagon effect is a psychological phenomenon where people adopt certain behaviors, styles, or attitudes simply because others are doing so. More specifically, it is a cognitive bias by which public opinion or behaviours can alter due to ...

. The magazine frequently covered articles about the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

, which were accompanied by photographs and illustrations. Takayama Chogyū published articles on literature,

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

, and

aesthetics Aesthetics (also spelled esthetics) is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of beauty and taste (sociology), taste, which in a broad sense incorporates the philosophy of art.Slater, B. H.Aesthetics ''Internet Encyclopedia of Ph ...

in the magazine.

Masaharu Anesaki , also known under his pen name , was a leading Japanese intellectual and scholar of the Meiji period. Anesaki is credited as being the father of religious studies in Japan, but also wrote on a variety of subjects including culture, literature, an ...

wrote for ''Taiyō'' under the pen name Anesaki Chōfū, including an article on German

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

Richard Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, essayist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most o ...

's opera work. It was one of the earliest articles about Wagner in Japan. From 1902, ''Taiyō'' began to publish selected photographs of

natural landscapes A natural landscape is the original landscape that exists before it is acted upon by human culture. The natural landscape and the cultural landscape are separate parts of the landscape. However, in the 21st century, landscapes that are totally u ...

in Japan. ''Taiyō'' ended publication in February 1928 after producing 34 volumes and 531 issues. The volumes of the magazine were digitalizated by JKBooks on the JapanKnowledge+ platform. A similar archive also exists at the library of the

Ohio State University The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one ...

. The texts published in ''Taiyō'' were used to generate a

corpus Corpus (plural ''corpora'') is Latin for "body". It may refer to: Linguistics * Text corpus, in linguistics, a large and structured set of texts * Speech corpus, in linguistics, a large set of speech audio files * Corpus linguistics, a branch of ...

of Japanese language.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Taiyo 1895 establishments in Japan 1928 disestablishments in Japan Defunct literary magazines published in Japan Defunct political magazines published in Japan Literary criticism Literary translation magazines Magazines established in 1895 Magazines disestablished in 1928 Magazines published in Tokyo Naturalism (literature) Photography magazines published in Japan Photojournalistic magazines Romantic publications