Dancing Princess

A short story by Mori Ogai. Published in Kokumin no Tomo in January 1890 (Meiji 23). It was his debut work and included in Minawashu, published by Shunyodo in July 1892. Ota Toyotaro, a young elite Japanese bureaucrat, studied in Berlin, where he awakens to freedom and self-awareness and falls in love with an unfortunate dancer named Ellis, but is dismissed from his post as a result. Eventually, with the help of his close friend Aizawa, he is able to return to Japan with a high-ranking Japanese official who has come to Germany, but to do so he must abandon Ellis, and upon learning the situation, the pregnant woman becomes mentally unstable. Written in the elegant and refined style that Ogai first created, this work has a strong romantic flavor and is a controversial work that describes the anguish of the self in the dawn of modern Japan. The story has strong autobiographical elements, as it tells the story of a German woman named Elise who came to Japan in 1888 to follow Ogai back to Japan.

[Hideo Isogai]

"Maihime: Utakata no Ki (Dancing Princess: Chronicle of the Ephemeral Period)" (Iwanami Bunko/Kadokawa Bunko)

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

森鴎外(おうがい)の短編小説。1890年（明治23）1月、『国民之友』に発表。処女作。92年7月、春陽堂刊の『美奈和(みなわ)集』に収録。ベルリンに留学した、日本の若きエリート官僚太田豊太郎(とよたろう)は、そこで、自由と自我に目覚め、薄幸の踊り子エリスと恋仲になるが、そのために免官となる。やがて、親友相沢の計らいで、来独の日本高官に従って帰国できることとなるが、そのためにはエリスを捨てねばならず、事情を知った妊娠中のエリスは精神に異常をきたしてしまう。鴎外創始の流麗な雅文体で書かれた、浪漫(ろうまん)的香気の高い作品で、日本近代の黎明(れいめい)期における自我の苦悩をつづった問題作である。1888年、鴎外の帰国を追って来日した、エリーゼというドイツ女性があり、自伝的要素の強い作品である。

［磯貝英夫］

『『舞姫・うたかたの記』（岩波文庫・角川文庫）』

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