Introduction: Hirabayashi Hatsunosuke and Interwar Japanese Modernity

In this critical introduction to The Hirabayashi Hatsunosuke Reader, editors Seth Jacobowitz and Aaron William Moore present some of the major concepts that defined Hirabayashi’s thought, as well as how these intersected with his biography. In ‘From Farm to Metropolis’, they trace his provincial origins and arrival at Waseda University in Tokyo, where he quickly became involved in French and English translation projects, as well as the newly formed Japanese Communist Party. ‘Liberating Culture from the Revolution’ explains how he helped formulate the theoretical basis for proletarian fiction, before moving beyond the idea that social class could (or should) determine cultural forms. Hirabayashi chose to embrace popular culture, rather than diminish it, as the editors explain in ‘Reading the Mass Audience’; furthermore, through a close reading of his fiction, the reader can see the revolutionary ends that Hirabayashi believed popular art forms might serve. In ‘The Technological Revolution in the Arts’, it becomes clear how Hirabayashi’s early Marxism made him vigilant about how ‘the engineer’s hand’ was constructing modern civilization, which may or may not serve the interests of a single class. Finally, Hirabayashi’s futuristic visions are revealed, and how they emerged out of his thoughts on technology, social formation, gender relations, and even historical memory of the recent past, just before his death in Paris in 1931.