모리 오가이(森鷗外)의 관료의식과 <舟>

Abstract

Mori Ogai (森鷗外, hereinafter “Ogai”)was a figure actively engaged in different fields from the Meigi period through the Taisho period. Although his entire life was oriented toward a military office while dedicated to studying medicine, he is more well-known as the literary Mori Ogai’. Ogai did a lot of great work as an army surgeon but finally faced sanctions from the military when he got more acknowledged as a literary man and more involved in literary activities. As a way of confronting his reality, Ogai was determined to choose literature, not his career as a serviceman. Ironically, serving in the Sino-Japanese War and Russo-Japanese War, he became distinguished as a literary man. During the wars, he wrote Utaniki (うた日記) and Soteiniki (徂征日記), the private recording. The poems in Utaniki, which described the quaint beauty of seasons such as the flavor of spring and the high, clear autumn sky, reflected his thinking as a man of letters, not as a serviceman, in order to put aside anxiety in battle fields. Here in this paper, a boat as one represents a feature of natural landscape (the boat is written in 舟, “Boat”, just for analyzing Ogai’s works). Simply it shows Boat (舟) or ‘Talchiseon’. ‘Talchiseon’ is a warship used for siege, implying a presence on a battle field. The warship in contrasts with seasonal quaint beauty as shown in poems or tanga (a kind of short poem) and haiku in Utaniki emphasizes the shame of war, which also illustrates his criticism as a writer. That is, Boat reflects Ogai’s consciousness as a military official. Furthermore, he marked enemy forces’ ships as ‘Battleships’ with the ally’s warships as ‘Boat (舟)’. Thus, when the term ‘Battleship (艦)’ had to be used if necessary; the meaning of ‘Hune (boat) was also added separately. For example, enemy forces’ warships were described as enemy ships (敵艦), ships defeated in war (敗艦), or hostile craft (賊艦) while ally’s warships were represented as ‘ikusanune (軍ぶね)’ or ‘gunnohune (軍の舟)’ meaning the military forces’ Boats, which shows his conscious differentiation. These conscious marks were found in Soteiniki (徂征日記) as well as Utaniki (うた日記), and furthermore in Izawaranken (伊沢蘭軒), a historical novel. His intention of marking enemy warships as ‘Battleships (艦)’ and his warship just as ‘Boat (舟)’ gave an impression of conscious distinction between the two terms. In other words, the intentional use of the two terms shows his critical view on war. He criticized the war based on his experience in battle fields. Also, this literary criticism shown in the two terms, ‘Boat’ and ‘Battleship’, demonstrates Ogai’s bureaucratic consciousness. The criticism through literature is writer’s inherent nature, and it turns out that Ogai used the word, Boat (舟) as a literary tool. Therefore, in his own way, Ogai projected a boat, one of common transportation, into his writings consciously or intentionally so as to represent both his consciousness as a writer and bureaucratic consciousness.