A Study Of The Aesthetic Implication Of Geisha Image In Nagai Kafu's Novels

Nagai Kafu is a pioneer writer of Japanese aestheticism.He first entered the Japanese literary world as a naturalist writer.He created The Tale of America and The Tale of France,and criticized the surface westernization of Japan,after returning from France.During this period,his works began to show the tendency of aestheticism.After the “ High Treason Incident”,Kafu felt strongly disappointed in Japanese society and even himself.He began to write a series of custom novels as "the author of Edo Opera",indulging in the Edo interest.Nagai Kafu was fond of the broken things such as Geisha and Ukiyo Painting.He had created a series of novels centering on the disreputable quarters of the city.This paper takes Nagai Kafu's Geisha literary text as the breakthrough point,takes the image of Geisha in the novel as the center,and combines Japanese classical aesthetic concepts--“iki”,”sorrow for object”,”mysterious profundity”and “loneliness”to analyse the aesthetic implication of the image of geisha represented by Asi,Judai and Axue in Nagai Kafu's novels,and explores the value of the Edo world,whose focus is on Geisha in Nagai Kafu's works.In addition to the introduction and conclusion,this paper is divided into three parts,which are as follows:The first part firstly discusses the important position of Geisha in the history of Japanese culture and the evolution of geisha literary image in literary works of successive dynasties.From Ihara Saikaku to Harunaga Shunsui,geisha has increasingly become the highest model of female beauty in Japanese society,which embodies the aesthetic concept of “iki” and“sorrow for object”.Lastly,the author elaborates the creation of Nagai Kafu's novel,and analyses theart world of Edo centered on Geisha created by Kafu.Nagai Kafu 's Geisha literary is different from the previous generation's erotic literature and humanity book,and it does not depict the sexual life of men and women too much.The image of Geisha represented by Ass,Judai and Axue is the symbol of the traditional world of Edo pursued by Kafu,as well as the critical weapon of Kafu to the hypocrisy of modern civilization.The second part uses the method of text close reading,combining the image of Geisha in Nagai Kafu ' s novels The Sumida River,The Contest and Bokuto Kidan,to analyze its expression of the concepts of “iki”,”sorrow for object”,”mysterious profundity”and”loneliness”in Japanese classical aesthetics.The image of Geisha in Kafu's literary works not only inherits the aesthetic characteristics of “iki” and ”sorrow for object”of traditional Geisha in Edo period,but also is endowed with the aesthetic characteristics of ”mysterious profundity” and ”loneliness”.The perfect integration of Japanese classical aesthetic ideas in Geisha enriches the aesthetic form of Geisha and adds color to the Edo world of Kafu.The third part discusses the aesthetic cultural value of the image of Geisha in NagaiKafu's novels from three aspects: cultural remains against modern civilization,metaphorical symbols of moral decadence and symbolic images of decadent aesthetics.He believes that in the hypocritical modern society which is full of material desire,Geisha,as a “broken thing”,has a more sincere and pure quality.At the same time,he also knows that in the Japanese society gradually eroded by modern civilization,the “broken thing” in Edo period can not get rid of the fate of being replaced after all.The conclusion summarizes the whole article and analyses the real intention of Nagai Kafu's returning to Edo's interest creation of novel which happen in the stews lies in criticizing the superficial Meiji modern civilization through the image of Geisha with classical aesthetic characteristics.Although Kafu claims to be the author of Edo Opera,he has been caring for social reality in his own way all his life.