SOURCE: Young, Blake Morgan. “Introduction to ‘Hankai’: A Tale from the Harusame Monogatari by Ueda Akinari (1734-1809).” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 32 (1972): 150-68.

In the following essay, Young discusses Akinari as a writer who remained outside contemporary literary circles, thus minimizing the influence of other writers on his work.

Ueda Akinari (sometimes) has been called a good amateur.¹ He achieved, as a novelist, the distinction to which he had aspired as a waka poet and classical scholar, and he is worthy of note as a writer of haikai and a devotee of the tea ceremony as well. Possessing a choleric and antisocial disposition, he stayed aloof from the society in which he lived, and that fact is reflected in his writings. Although he acknowledged his debt to certain other men of letters, Akinari maintained a freedom of position which gives his works their own unique flavor.

As nearly...