Japanese Studies in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia

From the outset, I must emphasise that Japanese Studies in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia are of a very modest scope. In fact, most of the work in this field has been derived so far from otherEuropean languages, which means that the Yugoslav scholars and translators in the past were only re-interpreting the writings of early European Japanologists.

Teaching of the Japanese language itself began as late as September 1976,so far only at Belgrade Unviersity. Prior to that, the writer of this review introduced a course in Japanese at the People's University of Kolarac in 1972, and Mrs. Masumi Stiglic, a Japanese lady married to a Yugoslav, has recently begun in Zagreb to teach small groups of interested students the Japanese language and Ikebana. Therefore, it may well be said that Japanese Studies here are hardly commensurate yet with the substantial trade and diplomatic relations between Japan and Yugoslavia.

The first Trade Agreement between the Empire of Japan and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia was made on the 16th of November, 1923, although there was yet no diplomatic ^presentation between the two countries at that stage. The trade relations were of course interrupted during the Second World War. In 1952, diplomatic notes were exchanged between the two governments, whereupon a Japanese Consulate was established in Belgrade and the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia reciprocated by setting up its Consulate in Tokyo. The Consulates were subsequently raised to the status of Embassies in November, 1957. In its note of January 23rd, 1952 the Government of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia proposed to renew the Trade Agreement of 1923, which was later extended and supplemented by a new Trade Agreement in 1959.

A significant step in furthering the cultural relations between the two countries was marked by the Agreement on Cultural, Scientific and Technical Knowledge Exchange, in 1958. Among the terms of this Agreement, the Japanese and the Yugoslav Ministries of Education made scholarships available for outstanding students to come to Japan, and vice versa to Yugoslavia, for two-year periods of study. The total number of Yugoslav students who went to Japan through this arrangement so far amounts to twenty-five, although most of these went to study subjects not directly related to Japanology, such as mathematics, seismology, technology, engineering, and architecture.

Nevertheless, even among these students, there were some who were captivated by the greatness of Japanese culture, and who later retained a lively interest in various aspects of Japan. Such is the case of Dr. Vladimir Devide, professor of mathematics at Zagreb University, who became attracted to haiku poetry and has since written extensively about haiku, the No drama and Japan in general. Likewise, in the field of Japanese art, Miss Evgeruja Deminevska, upon her recent return from two years of study on Japanese painting, has endeavoured to introduce masterpieces of {11} Japanese pictorial art in Belgrade and other Yugoslav cities. Let us hopethat there will be an increasing number of Monbusho students in the future who will devote themselves to introducing the rich cultural heritage of Japan to the peoples of Yugoslavia.

It is encouraging to note some recent developments in this direction. There is an increasing number of Yugoslav students who go privately to Japan, working to pay for their studies, with the sole purpose of learning Japanese and getting to know more about the country. An exchange of journalists has also come into being. Trade unions have introduced their own system of exchange, and several leading Japanese companies have begun to invite Yugoslavs for short periods of training. The growing number of such students and exchange personnel will gradually contribute towards a better understanding of Japan in Yugoslavia.

The latest major development is the role played by the Japan Foundation,which has extended generous grants for university library acquisitions and introduced a program of Fellowships and Postgraduate Scholarships, under which the writer of this review is at present engaged in research work in Japan.

Publications on Japanese Literature

Before the war, French was the most popular language in Yugoslavia. Thereafter, Russian was the main language at one stage, later to give way in popularity to English and German. Thus the Yugoslavs learnt about Japan first from the French Japanologists, then from the Russians, English and Germans.

The first publication on Japanese poetry appeared simultaneously in 1 895 in the Serbian literary journal Brankovo kolo and in the Croatian journal Hrvatska domovina. It was an article written in French by the Japanese author Motoyoji Seizo, entitled 'Japanese Poetry. * Thus it is significant that a Japanese author was first to introduce a glimpse of Japanese poetry to the Yugoslav readers. Several years later, in 1903, there appeared another article, also translated from French, entitled Two Phenomena in the Contemporary Japanese Literature.* Subsequently, there appeared a considerable number of publications, of which I shall mention the most significant:

1904: Literature of the Japanese People, in Opozicija.

1910: Japanese Poetry, in Narodne novine.

1922: From the Japanese Poetry, in Hrvatski list. This is an introductory article with translations of selections from Japanese poetry.

1923: Lyrics of the Yellow East, in Novosti, by Gorjan Zlatko, a famous Yugoslav translator from European languages, who is still veryactive today. This is an introductory article about the Chinese and the Japanese lyrical poetry with translations of selected examples.

1927: Songs of the Old Japan, in one of the oldest Yugoslav journals Letopis Matice srpske.

1927: Haikai, in Letopis Matice srpske. This is an article about Haikai poetry and the haijins who lived and wrote fromthe 17th to the 19th century.

1931: Japanese No Drama, in Misao, by a famous Yugoslav authoress Isidora Sekulic, about the characteristics of the No drama and about the No theatre in general.

1931: The Chinese and the Japanese, the Peoples of Refined Poets and Pacifists and their Poems About War, in Novosti.

1936: Contemporary Japanese Lyrical Poetry, written in French by L. Fumi and K. Matsuo and translated by A. Cettineo. The book was published in Paris, Tokyo and Split.

1938: Modern Proletarian Literature in Japan, in Obzor.

The early Yugoslav translators and scholars were attracted primarily to Japanese poetry, both classical and modern. However, there were some writings also on Japanese literature in general, as well as on the No drama and on proletarian literature in particular. All these writingsmay be described as introductory essays rather than detailed scholarly works.

There were many publications in other fields as well, such as history, art, politics, sociology and Japanese culture in general. As this review was written in Japan, however, without access to Yugoslav libraries, it must be confined largely to the writings on literature, which in any case constitute the major portion of the work in Japanology to date.

Translations and Books on Japanese Literature Published Since 1945

After a temporary 'silence* during the war period, Yugoslav translators and scholars began to publish much more intensively in the field of Japanese literature. Now there appeared translations of specific works, anthologies of poetry and stories, and studies on individual writers. The chronological list of postwar publications in the field of Japanese literature alone would amount to several hundred books, so I shall select only the most representative items:

1950: Tokunaga Naoshi: The Street Without Sun, translated from French by Jugana Stojanovic, Belgrade, Rad.

1953: Natsume Sbseki: Kokoro, translated from French by Mirko Paut,Zagreb, Zora.

1955: Japanese Poetry, translated from English by Bozo Kukolja, Zabreb, Lykos.

1955: Murasaki Shikibu: Genji Monogatari, translated from English by Sreten Hid, Belgrade, Kosmos.

1955: Nihon Mukashi-banashi, translated from Russian by Tome Arsovski, Skoplje, Detska radost.

1956: Velimirovic Milutin: About Japanese Poetry, Belgrade, Naucna knjiga.

1957: Natsume Sbseki: Botchan,translated from Russian by Dusan Stojiljkovid, Belgrade, Narodna knjiga.

1957: Nakagawa Ybichi: Ten no Yugao, translated from French by Milica Grabovac, Sarajevo, {12} Svetlost.

1958: Mishima Yukio: The Sound of Waves, translated from English by Ivan Slamnig, Zagreb, Zora.

1960: Akutagawa Ryunosuke: Kappa, translated from English by Voja Colanovic, Belgrade, Rad.

1961: Japanese Lyrical Poetry, with notes on the poets represented in this anthology, by Tome Arsovski, Skoplje, Koco Racin.1961: Vojin Santic: Japan, Belgrade, Kultura.

1962: Kawabata Yasunari: Senba-zuru and Yuki-guni, based on the English and German versions by Yatsushiro Sachiko and Oscar Benl, translated by Zlatko Gorjan, Zagreb, Matica hrvatska.

1962: Anthology of Modern Japanese Lyrical Poetry, compiled and translated from English by Zlatko Gorjan. Zagreb, Matica hrvatska.

1965:Dazai Osamu: Shayb, translated from English by Katarina Pucova, Ljubljana, Cankarjeva zalozba.

1966: Ueda Akinari: Ugetsu Monogatari, translated from French by Bozidar Markovic, Belgrade, Nolit.

1967: Mishima Yukio: Utage no Ato, translated from English by Ivan Slamnig, Zagreb, Zora.

1968: Tanizaki Jun'ichirb: Sasame Yuki, translatedfrom German by Alenka Bole-Vrabec, Ljubljana, Cankarjeva zalozba.

1970: Devide" Vladimir: Japanese Haiku Poetry and Its Cultural and Historical Framework, Zagreb, Vlastita naklada autora

1970: Tanizaki Jun'ichirb: Kagi, translated from English by Ljiljana Calovska, Belgrade, Rad.

1971: Mishima Yukio: Gogo no Eikb, translated from German by Andreja Grosberger, Novi Sad, Matica srpska.

1974: Haiku, translated from English by IztokGeister. Ljubljana, Drzavna zalozba Slovenije.

It is evident from the above list that there was no systematic approach to translations from Japanese literature in Yugoslavia. They ranged haphazardly from classical to modern literature, depending on the particular interests of the translators and upon the availability of translations in other European languages. It is to be expected that greater care shall be taken in the future to cover all periods in the long Japanese literary genres. For this purpose, it is considered necessary first of all to have a more comprehensive work on the history ofJapanese literature, which would serve as a guideline to future Yugoslav translators and scholars.

The list of publications related to Japanese literature that appeared since 1945 in various Yugoslav magazines and joumals is quite considerable: there are over a thousand titles, which would be too bulky to list in this review. Suffice to mention the range they cover. There are articles on Japanese theatre, on the No and Kabuki, on films, onclassical and medieval poetry - tanka, renga, haikai and haiku - on modern poetry with selected translations, on short stories with specific reference to Shiga Naoya, on novels, on art, on Japanese culture, customs, and folklore.

However, the most popular writings appear to have been children's stories and fairy tales. They have been translated in all the six Yugoslav republics, and numerous examples have appeared in both children's and adults' magazines. This is the only field of Japanese culture that may be said to have been introduced in Yugoslavia to a considerable extent. In all other fields there is still a great deal of systematic, creative and scholarly work to be done before Yugoslav Japanology may claim any significant achievement. This nevertheless does not negate the value of already existing, considerable body of publications on Japan in Yugoslavia.

University Courses Related to Japan

The first course on Japanese literature was given at Belgrade University by Professor Dr. Vojislav Djuric' in 1950, as part of his general course on the history of world literature. This was an introductory course based on research from European languages. Nevertheless, it attracted a considerable number of students, among whom was Mr. Dejan Razic, who embarked on the study of Japanese language and literature overseas. He first studied Chinese and Japanese language and literature at Sydney University in Australia (1957-1963) and was awarded the Saionji Memorial Scholarship for two years' postgraduate study of modern Japanese literature at Waseda University (1964- 1966). In 1971 he returned to Yugoslavia to introduce Chinese and Japanese language courses,first at the Belgrade People's University of Kolarac in 1972, and subsequently at the Department of Oriental Studies of the Faculty of Philology at Belgrade University (Chinese in 1974, and Japanese in 1976). He was assisted in the Japanese language course by Mrs. Ljiljana Pavlovid-Djurovic, who graduated in Japanese Studies from Cambridge University. However, these language courses are still at the status of Lectureships within the Department of Oriental Studies, which in the past concentrated mainly on Arabic, Turkish and Persian Studies. That is to say, that Yugoslav students still cannot take Chinese and Japanese as their major subjects at Belgrade University, but only as secondary subjects counting towards a B.A. Degree in other departments of the Faculty of Philology.

Besides these language courses, there are courses on Japanese history in the History Department of Belgrade University and other universities. There is also a course on Japanese Economics at theFaculty of Economics of Belgrade University. A graduate of this Faculty, Mr. Dzemal HatibovkS, was a Monbusho student (1964-1966) who became a specialist in Japanese economics. He has published several books and many articles on Japanese Economics in Yugoslav economic journals and he is at present working at the Institute of Economics in Belgrade.

There are also courses on Japanese politics and sociology {13} at the Faculties of Political Science at Belgrade and other universities. However, all these courses are at present isolated, and it is still not possible for a student interested in Japan to take an inter-disciplinary degree which would enable him to acquire an overall knowledge of Japan. This is expected to be introduced in the future in accordance with the recent changes in the system of university education in Yugoslavia.

Future Perspectives

It is not possible to discuss the future perspectives of Japanese Studies in Yugoslavia in concrete terms, for this depends largely on the availability of both university funds and experts who would carry on this worthwhilework. One may rather present a view of the needs for such studies to eventuate in Yugoslav universities.

The first concrete development will be the introduction of courses on Japanese literature at the Department of Oriental Studies of the Faculty of Philology at Belgrade University. This will take place in the near future, upon the return from Japan of Mr. Razic, who is at present writing a history of Japanese literature and gathering materials for future work. When this course is introduced, it will become possible for students at Belgrade University to take up Japanese Studies as their major subject. Similar developments will no doubt take place in Chinese Studies as well. Then, the present Lectureships will grow into a separate Departmentof Far-Eastern Studies, eventually incorporating Korean Studies. Thus a nucleus of Far-Eastern Studies will be formed at Belgrade University.

However, this is only the first step. The next stage of development should be to create similar centres of Far- Eastern Studies, or at least of Japanese Studies, at other major universities in our six republics.Only then will it be possible to disseminate Japanese Studies to all the peoples of Yugoslavia and to form an Association of Japanese Studies on a Federal level. This will no doubt be a slow and painstaking process, but given the foresight of the Yugoslav government authorities, and with the help from various Japanese institutions, especially the Japan Foundation, it is certainly not an impossible task. It is hardly necessary to dwell on the subject of the necessity for such development to take place in Yugoslavia. They are warranted by the increasing relations between Japan and Yugoslavia, the growing importance of Japan in world affairs, and by the recent developments of Japanology in other countries.

Meanwhile, the staff of the Department of Oriental Studies at Belgrade University will endeavour to spread as much knowledge on Japan as possible tothe Yugoslav students, who are incrasingly becoming interested in the great heritage of Japanese culture. As one example of this growing interest, mention should be made of the formation of a haiku journal as a self-supporting, non-profit enterprise. Also, a Yugoslav-Japanese Associaltion is soon to be founded in Belgrade, which should become an important nucleus of activities.

Last, but not least, there are growing numbers of Japanese people who come to live and work in Yugoslavia. Their contribution towards enriching the life-experiences of the Yugoslav people with whom they come into contact is invaluable, as they begin to teach the Japanese language, ikebana, origami, Japanese music, Japanese sports and traditional arts, etc. This is a splendid example of increasing inter-cultural exchange on a personal level in a present world of relative peace and freedom of movement. Let us hope that this peaceful coexistence will be sustained throughout the twentieth century and for many centuries ahead, so that future generations will develop an ever greater understanding of their respective cultures, building up a new spirit of a world as one large family.