9 Having finished his studies at the age of fifteen Enryō stood at a turning point. From 1872 he started creating a collection of Chinese poetry. Later, however, there is a marked change in the mood and content. Consider this early poem, “The New Year of the Water Monkey.” ready everything I see this morning looks fresh. All of the houses put on lavish parties, and we pray for a good year for the world. Next, let’s look at a poem titled “From the First Month of the New Year” from 1874 when he was seventeen years old. came to us, and now it is the new spring of the year of the is a New Year in the middle of an era of modernization that grows newer every day. The poem for 1872 is a rather ordinary one, talking of the scenes of the New Year, but the poem for 1874 features the connection be-tween the times in which he was living and him personally. “Old ways,” that is to say, his being bound up in the traditional customs and modes of thought is contrasted with his historical location in an era of modernization. Changes were taking place in Enryō’s heart. The light of daybreak rises and the season shifts to spring; al-The rooster next door announced the dawn, the New Year wood-dog, 1874. While I am still bound up in the old ways, this Western Studies (1)
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