Kōtarō Takamura’s 1914 book Dōtei (Journey) may be the single most important poetry collection to the development of 20th-century Japanese poetry. In Dōtei, Kōtarō Takamura showed himself to be the first Japanese poet to break effectively with traditional poetic convention.

Influenced by Western art and literature of the time, as well as by the poetry of Walt Whitman and others, Kōtarō Takamura employed a free verse and colloquial language that sharply diverged from the literary language and fixed forms in which poetry had traditionally been written in Japan.

Other similarly successful volumes of poetry, such as Sakutarō Hagiwara’s 1917 Tsuki ni Hoeru (Howling at the Moon), appeared around this time, but Dōtei broke the mold, much as Whitman had in the West during the previous century.

Dōtei is a collection of 107 poems from which Kōtarō Takamura would later incorporate 11 into his enormously successful 1941 Chieko Shō (The Chieko Collection). Dōtei, as its title poem “Journey” forecasts, conveys a journey—Kōtarō Takamura’s journey into a new life.

Having rejected the life planned for him as his family’s eldest son and having recently left his life of decadence with Pan no Kai (The Pan Society), Kōtarō Takamura enters a new life with Chieko Naganuma, whom he would marry shortly after the publication of Dōtei, as the couple begins a new life together in conscious harmony with the wonders of nature.

The poems in this volume encompass Kōtarō Takamura’s dissatisfaction with what he saw as a staid and stagnant tradition-bound existence in Japan at the time (such as in “Father’s Face” and “The Land of Netsuke”), as well as his rootless and decadent time with Pan no Kai, and finally his finding his way with nature as his guide.

Particularly in the poems about his relationship with Chieko, such as “Fear” and “Family of Owls,” Kōtarō Takamura demonstrates the uniqueness of their journey into life, as they eschewed traditional marital and social roles, seemingly to the consternation of society.

Even more important, though, was their journey into life guided by nature, as evidenced in such poems as “Two of Us” and “One Evening.” Dōtei is ultimately about nature’s ability to direct one’s life properly and about the necessity of living in harmony with nature and in harmony with one’s own soul.

Categories: British Literature, Japanese Literature, Literature

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