“Anguished Youth” and “Self-Cultivation Diary”：A Study on the Modern Diary Azamukazaru no Ki

Kunikida Doppo (1871-1908) wrote a diary named Azamukazaru no Ki (Diary Without Deceit) over the course of five years. Azamukazaru no Ki not only gained a large audience, but has also been recognized as a “Shūyō Sho” (self-cultivation work) in the process of repeated reprints, which have included new material. However, this text has not received sufficient attention in prior studies, and often serves merely as reference material for studies on Kunikida or his literary works. In the few studies that are centered on this text itself, the dimension of “Shūyō Sho” has not received much attention. From the starting point of “Shūyō Sho”, this paper clarifies Kunikida’s position in the discourse of “Hanmon Seinen” (anguished youth) and “Shūyō Nikki” (self-cultivation diary), and discusses how contemporary readers during the “Shūyō Boom” read Azamukazaru no Ki. It argues that Doppo, as a “Hanmon Seinen” in distress in the midst of his process of self-discovery, is engaged in “Shūyō” through the self-management and self-healing mechanism of “Shūyō Nikki”. Through this analysis, this paper adopts a new approach to the diary as a form of literature through the prism of “Shūyō”.