A Comparative Study of Religious Aspects of Modern Japanese Literature and Transcendental Philosophy of American Nineteenth Literature with Special Attention to Gender

上个财政年度，我利用研究资助的旅费，访问了美国纽约州，收集了许多资料，特别是与赫尔曼·梅尔维尔有关的土地和建筑的照片。今年，我访问了法属波利尼西亚，追寻着他的足迹。这些将是出版一本关于赫尔曼·梅尔维尔的书的重要材料，这本书将于2008年由东京的一家出版商出版。关于日本现代文学的研究，特别是它的宗教特征，我编辑并出版了一本关于当代日本小说家和故事作家小岛信夫的书。这本书是我大约20年前出版的第一本书的修订版。小岛的S文坛象征着日本人S从佛教到基督教的宗教观。现代日本的其他一些文学家一直关注以基督教为基础的西方文化和文学。他们无一例外地不喜欢日本的自然主义文学。然而，日本的自然主义是基于一种传统的佛教思维方式。请看明治和太守时代的小说家和故事作家德田修纪。小岛是德田和纳图姆·索斯基的奇怪弟子。不喜欢纳图姆和德田的日本文人喜欢西方古典音乐和法国象征主义文学。没有人知道为什么音乐和象征主义在音乐中联系在一起，但基督教和反基督教之间的紧张关系肯定是原因的关键。

Last fiscal year, making use of the traveling expenses of the research subsidy, I visited New York State, U.S.A and collected many data, especially, photographs of the land and the buildings which are associated with Herman Melville. This year I visited the French Polynesia and chased his footprints. These are to be important material for publication of a planned book concerning Herman Melville, which will come 2008 from a publisher in Kyoto.With regard to research of modern Japanese literature with special attention to its religious characteristics, I have compiled and published a book concerning Nobuo Kojima, a novelist and story writer of contemporary Japan. This book is a revised edition of my first publication about twenty years ago. Kojima' s literary world is symbolic of Japanese people' s sense of religion from Buddhism through Christianity. Some other men of letters of modern Japan have been concerned with occidental culture and literature based on Christianity. They are not fond of Japanese naturalistic literature without any exception. Japanese naturalism, however, was based on a kind of traditional way of Buddhist thinking. See Tokuda Shuusei, a novelist and story writer of Meiji and Taishou era. Kojima is a strange disciple of Tokuda and Natume Soseki as well. Japanese men of letters who dislike Natume and Tokuda are fond of occidental classical music and French symbolist literature. Nobody knows why music and symbolism are connected within themo But tension between Christianity and anti-Christianity must be a key to the reason.