Pathway to Japanese Literature
Discover Japan's stories—across time, across language.
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As IfAuthor: Mori Ōgai
| Original Title | かのように |
|---|---|
| Author | 森 鴎外 |
| Genre | Modern Short Fiction |
| Author Type | Male Author |
| Summary | In an opulent Tokyo mansion, young scholar Hidemaro returns from European studies burdened by invisible weights. His mother frets over late-night lights burning in his book-crammed study—a room thickened by silence and pale green curtains that muffle the world. Though physically restored from abroad, Hidemaro’s vitality remains veiled behind vacant eyes and measured words that leave familial warmth unreciprocated. His mind churns with forbidden questions: Can ancestral rites hold meaning without belief? How to disentangle myth from history when both sustain cultural foundations? \nA philosophical treatise—*Die Philosophie des ‘Als Ob’*—consumes him, proposing life’s truths as conscious fictions: worship *as if* spirits exist, act *as if* duty binds. Yet this intellectual refuge fractures when brash painter Ayanokōji mocks his paralysis—"Spineless! Charge through!"—exposing the gulf between theory and a society clinging to tangible certainties. Across dinner tables, Hidemaro’s statesman father watches warily, sensing dangerous currents beneath his son’s restrained demeanor. \nAs autumn leaves carpet the garden, conversations circle like wary duelists—mother’s anxious inquiries deflected, paternal debates muted by mutual caution. Within Hidemaro’s cloistered study, cigar smoke curls around unresolved tensions: Can one honor tradition while dissecting its myths? Or does enlightenment demand abandoning the very fictions that bind a nation’s soul? The answer lies coiled in bookshelves’ shadows, awaiting a spark neither scholarship nor rebellion can provide. |
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