''Taiyō'' (太陽; ''The Sun'') was a

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

literary Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to ...

and general interest magazine that existed between 1895 and 1928 which covered the Meiji and Taishō eras. The magazine was published in Tokyo, Japan. It is a significant publication which contained mostly

literary 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 discussion of literature's goals and methods. Th ...

, 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-Japanes ...

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

Hakubunkan is a Japanese publisher, 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, pa ...

that made it well-known in the country.

History and profile

''Taiyō'' was founded in 1895 and the first issue appeared in January 1895. The 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 graduate men and women. Editors of ''Taiyō'' included Yoshino Sakuzō (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, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...

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

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

Guy de Maupassant Henri René Albert Guy de Maupassant (, ; ; 5 August 1850 – 6 July 1893) was a 19th-century French author, remembered as a master of the short story form, as well as a representative of the Naturalist school, who depicted human lives, destin ...

Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has p ...

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

and

Leo Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich TolstoyTolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; russian: link=no, Лев Николаевич Толстой,In Tolstoy's day, his name was written as in pre-refor ...

. Major naturalist Japanese authors of which 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 Aki Shimazaki (born 1966 in Gifu, Gifu, Gifu, Japan) is a Canadian novelist and Translation, translator. She moved to Canada in 1981, livin ...

. Japanese author

Shimizu Shikin Shimizu Shikin ( ja, 清水紫琴; 1868–1933), pen name of Shimizu Toyoko, was a Japanese novelist and women's rights activist of the Meiji period in Japan. A lecturer on equality and social issues, she was forced to turn to writing when the law ...

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 (meaning Scribblings from a Flower Garden in English) and she used her real name, Kozai Toyoko, in the column. The content of the magazine was comprehensive and was not limited to literary works. ''Taiyō'' was also influential in using innovative technologies such as

photography Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable 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 employed ...

and

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

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

Imperial family A royal family is the immediate family of King, kings/Queen regnant, queens, Emir, emirs/emiras, Sultan, sultans/Sultana (title), sultanas, or raja/rani and sometimes their extended family. The term imperial family appropriately describes the ...

, women, commerce as well as articles on the

natural sciences Natural 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 review and repeatab ...

and

cultural trends The bandwagon effect is the tendency for people to 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 particular acti ...

. The magazine frequently covered articles about the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

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

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

, and

aesthetics Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and taste, as well as the philosophy of art (its own area of philosophy that comes out of aesthetics). It examines aesthetic values, often expressed thr ...

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 Defi ...

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

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

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

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

corpus Corpus 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 linguistics Music * ...

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 Romanticism