Research on publications accompanying newspapers in the early Meiji period

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K00353
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 02010:Japanese literature-related
• Research Institution: Hosei University
• Principal Investigator: Nakamaru Nobuaki 法政大学, 文学部, 教授 (80198184)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: 草双紙 / １９世紀文学 / 小新聞 / 書籍行商社 / 唄本

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This study empirically clarified the actual publishing activities of a book peddler company (later renamed Nippon-kan) that, during the process of newspaper sales in the early Meiji period, changed its business from simply selling newspapers to publishing publications related to newspapers (collecting publication catalogues and bibliographic information and creating a database).These publications were the kind of "small newspapers" that were discarded when the "small newspapers" of the Meiji period became "medium-sized newspapers" (quality papers aimed at the "citizen class" that grew after the Sino-Japanese War). They contained information about daily life such as calendars, gossip news, popular reading material, and poetry submission columns, and I have made clear that they inherited the tradition of kusazoshi-style reading material from the Edo period.

Free Research Field

日本近代文学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究は江戸幕末期の所謂戯作文学が、どのように明治期の文学に受け継がれたかを明らかにした。明治期になると新しい出来事を伝える新聞が発達するが、卑近な日常の情報の提供を担った「小新聞」の担い手には江戸期の戯作者たちが当たることになる。彼らは巷のニュースや新時代の情報などを面白おかしく報道するが、その手法は江戸期の合巻や人情本の伝統を受け継ぐものであった。しかし、新聞が「近代化」する過程でそれらの要素は新聞から切り離され、新聞周縁の出版物へと分離する。その版元の代表が日本館であった。それらの出版物２０世紀に入る頃には、講談・落語の速記本の流れと合流し「大衆文学」の源流となる、という筋道を解明した。