Echi futuristi sulla stampa giapponese del 1914: Cinque casi

The presentation of Futurism in Japan, not only to a cultivated audience of artists and intellectuals, but also to a larger public of newspaper readers, was incredibly rapid and accurate. In May 1909, already, the famed writer Mori Ōgai published one of the oldest translations of Marinetti’s first manifesto. The steady accumulation of articles, reportages and reviews, on the specialized as well as on the generalist press, continued almost with no interruption in the following years. The year 1914 marked a turning point in the reception process, for it witnessed a significant increase in quantitative terms, with dozens of articles devoted to the Italian movement, to its many disciplinary fields, and even to its relationships within the international avant-garde scene. In my talk, besides giving a general account of the material published or translated during this year, I will focus on five particular articles: • Sakuma Kanae, “Miraishugi undō” (The Futurist Movement), Teikoku bungaku (Literature of the Imperial University), 20, 1, January 1914, pp. 74-84; • Nakada Katsunosuke, “Seikatsu taido toshite no miraishugi” (Futurism as a Lifestyle), Seikatsu to geijutsu (Life and Art), 1, 8, April 1914, pp. 24-26; • Sanbei (or Sanpei), “Kappa no he – sono ichi” (Kappa’s Gas – First Part), Bijutsu shinpō (Art Journal), 13, 6, April 1914, pp. 243-245 (33-35); • Moriguchi Tari, “Itari miraiha” (Italian Futurism), Waseda bungaku (Literature of Waseda), 102, May 1914, pp. 42-54; • Ashiya Shigetsune (Jūjō), “Shigunōru Marinetti - Miraiha no geijutsukan” (Signor Marinetti – The Futurist View on Art), Sōsaku (Creation), 4, 7, July 1914, pp. 8-9. These articles differ significantly as for their place of publication, their author and their approach to Futurism. Through my analysis, I will try to show how variegated and nuanced was the reception of Futurism in Japan during the 1910s. It constituted an important substratum for the explosion, in the 1920s, of the indigenous avant-garde movements.