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 74-18,177

ICO, Sung-Won, 1925-

DADA AND BUDDHIST THOUGHT: TAKAHASHI
RHTNKTCHT AS A DADA POET COMPARED TO
TRISTAN TZARA.

New York University, Ph.D., 1974

Language and Literature, general

University Microfilms. A XEROX Com pany, Ann Arbor. M ichigan

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© 1974

SUNG-WON KO

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

THIS DISSERTATION HAS BEEN MICROFILMED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED.

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 DADA AND BUDDHIST THOUGHT* TAKAHASHI SHINKICHI
AS A DADA POET COMPARED TO TRISTAN TZARA

by Sung-Won Ko

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February 197^
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Approved

(SIGNED) / ymm

Research Adviser

A dissertation in the Department of Comparative Literature

submitted to the faculty of the Graduate School of Arts and
Science in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the
degree of Doctor of Philosophy at New York University

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 PREFACE

On completion of this dissertation, the author's particular

gratitude goes to Mr. Takahashi Shinkichi in Tokyo for the
gift of his pertinent publications and for writing several
letters in reply to the author's inquiries about various
questions relating to the Japanese Dada works. Besides the
writer's thesis committee at New York University, consisting
of Professors Robert J. Clements (adviser), W. B. Fleischmann

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Benito Ortolani, and Doris S. Guilloton, Professor Anna
Balakian also supervised him. In an attempt to search a
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relevant evidence of Tristan Tzara's Buddhist and/or any
other Asian background, the following scholars outside the
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University have been consulted! Professors Gordon Browning

(University of Miami), Mary Ann Caws (the City University of
New York), Elmer Peterson (the Colorado College), Michel
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Sanouillet (Universite de Nice), and Mr. Christophe Tzara,

the ;poet's son and scientist in Sceaux, France. Also, the
writer has been in contact with Miss Ellen Sharp, Curator of
Graphic Arts of the Detroit Institute of Arts, who is plan­
ning to organize an exhibition of the works of Tzara ,and his
time. Thankful acknowledgements are due to their information
suggestions, and personal encouragements. The author is
especially grateful to Professor Caws for her reading of his
whole draft and her invaluable comments on it.

November 1973

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface
Introduction 1

I. The Point of Contact

1. The Introduction of Dada into Japan 15
2. Takahashi Shinkichi, the Pioneer 35

II. Poems of Dadaist ShinkichitComparisons

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1. The Dada "Assertion" Manifesto 53
2. Reality and Surreality 66
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3* Sex and Excreta 90
4. Death and Time 107
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III. Dada Meets Zen: Tzara andTakahashi

1. The Philosophy of Nothing 126
2. Illogicality and Simplicity 156
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IV. Conclusion 172

Bibliography 186

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 1

INTRODUCTION

It is important to note that in the past three years'

time from 1970 to 1973 alone, at least nine full-length books
devoted either entirely or partly to Dada have been published
in the United States. Critical studies include The Poetry
of Dada and Surrealism: Aragon, Breton, Tzara, Eluard, and
Desnos by Mary Ann Caws (1970), Dada: Paradox, Mystification,

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and Ambiguity in Buropean Literature by Manuel L. Grossman
(1971)* Tristan Tzara: Dada and Surrational Theorist by Elmer
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Peterson (1971)» Andre Breton: Magus of Surrealism by Anna
Balakian (1971), The Inner Theatre of Recent French Poetry:
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Cendrars. Tzara. Peret. Artaud. Bonnefoy by Mary Ann Caws

(1972), Dada and Surrealism by C. W. Bigsby (1972), and Salt
Seller, the writings of Marcel Duchamp, edited with commen­
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taries by Michel Sanouillet and Elmer Peterson (1973)* In

addition, translations of Dada works with critical introduct­
ions published are Dadas on Art by Lucy R. Lippard (1971)»
and Tristan Tzara: Approximate Man and Other Writings, trans­
lated with an extensive introduction and detailed notes by
Mary Ann Caws (1973)* Also, Gordon Browning wrote his doctoral
dissertation on "Tristan Tzara: The Genesis of the Dada Poem
Or from Da Da to Aa" in 1972. Most of these publications
are primarily concerned with reexamining Dada (often in con­
nection with surrealism), concentrating on theoretical and

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 creative works themselves rather than the old-fashioned
history of the movement as a group activity, in the light
of Dada's seriousness and significance in its enduring con­
tributions to the development of twentieth-century literature
and art.
The growing attention by scholars seems to reflect the
fact that Dada, without naming so (except "Neo-Dada"), con­
tinues to come alive in the streets and parks, in the perform­
ing and plastic arts, and in poetry. In this respect, Prof­
essor Peterson, in the introduction to his Tristan Tzara,

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observes how the influence of Dada has been steady since the
Spring of i960 , culminating in 1968, in terms of modem man’s
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response to the changing social and political conditions in
Europe as well as America. Almost the same phenomena can be
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found in Asia. Many people of today in many different places
might agree to say that "Tout est Dada" as Tristan Tzara
(pseudonym of Sami Rosenstock, I896-I963 ) shouted fifty years
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ago.
The life of Dada as a poetical and artistic movement was
by no means long. Historically speaking, the onset of its
group .activities, whether they were those of "Pre-Dada" in
New York, led by Marcel Duchamp, Francis Picabia, and Man Ray,
or of Zurich Dada, whose group including Hugo Ball, Emmy Hen­
nings, Jean (Hans) Arp, Marcel Janco, Tristan Tzara, Richard
Huelsenbeck, Walter Serner, and Sophie Tauber, all of whom
were to frequent the Cabaret Voltaire as their headquarters,
had much to do with these expatriates* or deserters' desparate

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 objection to World War I which broke out in 191^• However,
while the Dada movement took place roughly between 191^ and
1923, spreading over a large number of European and American
countries,its major centers including New York, Zurich, Berlin,
Cologne, Hanover, and Paris, Dada was, from a literary-art­
istic point of view, not necessarily the by-product of war
experiences. Well before the structured movement began to
develop, the way to Dada was already paved in the realms of
poetry, art, and drama as well as philosophy. The symbolist
search for the Absolute and belief in universal correspon­

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dence , the .impressionist discard of the conventional modes
of seeing, .breaking up the solidity of objects into a multi­
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plicity of fragments, the expressionist effort to objectify
inner experience, the futurist objection to Nature and glori­
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fication of the noise and speed, and the cubist fragmentation

of the elements of an experience (Picasso’s "destruction'')
and synthetic re-arrangement of them ("sum of destructions")
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are all related to Dada in one way hr the other.

More specifically, as Professor Grossman examines, in
detail, Alfred Jarry, Arthur Cravan, and Jacques Vache may
well have been "three of Dada’s most radical and most imme­
diate predecessors."* Par and near forerunners taken to­
gether, common to all— to the varying degrees— is a decisive
breakdown of the old conception of external reality, coupled
with a revolt against present-day conditions and. against the

*Manuel L. Grossman, Dada» Paradox. Mystification, and

Ambiguity in European Literature {New York. 1971). p. 21.

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 4

traditional way of expression, and, in many cases, with the

rejection of discursive intelligence. With this background
and under the moral impact of World War I, the general disgust
and despair and the particular distrust of all the existing
values, including those of beauty, forms, logic and words,
order and system, among the young artists and poets of the
mid-1920's who were also true pacifists, became the ground
for an international movement which happened to be called
Dada.
In the history of Western literature and art, Dada, there­

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fore , stands between the trends of Cubism and Futurism and
the following movement of Surrealism, which assimilated many
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aspects of Dada, with Andre Breton now assuming its leader­
ship. By way of defining the difference between Dada and
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the former two (Cubism and Futurism) from which Dada broke
away, let us simply have the then Dada poets, Tzara and Breton,
speak for themselves. Tzara said in 1918 that*
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Cubism was b o m from the simple way of looking at the

objects Cezanne painted a cup twenty centimeters lower
than his eyes, the cubists look at it from above, others
complicate its appearance by making one part perpendi­
cular and in putting it nicely on one side. • • • roe
futurist sees the same cup in movement, a succession of
objects one alongside the other embellished maliciously
by some lines of force . . . • The new artist: protests:
he no longer paints (symbolic and illusionistic repro­
duction) but rather creates directly in stone, wood, iron,
tin, "rocks , and locomotive organisms that can be turned
about on any side by the limpid wind of momentary sen­
sation;2

2 Tristan Tzara, "Manifeste dada 1918,w Mary Ann Caws,

Tristan Tzarai Approximate Man and Other Writings (Detroit,
1973K P. 151.

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 Breton categorized them in the early 1920*s as follows*
"Cubism was a school of painting, futurism a political move­
ment: DADA is a state of mind • • . . DADA is artistic free-
thinking. While admitting that each of the three currents
differed both regionally and individually within its own scope
and according to the period of its development, Dada in gene­
ral rejected virtually all the cubist and futurist "const­
ructive** and modernistic principles. Although Dada shared
quite a few methodological aspects of Cubism and Futurism,
Dada was definitely against anything decorative and artifi­

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cial; it was anti-art and anti-literature; it never allowed
itself to accept the futuMst apotheosis of mechanical and
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technological, civilization; after all, Dada "abolished"
everything. At the same time, because of its negative and
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"destructive" nature, Dada was positive and creative as wello

Its accomplishments included the threat to photographic re­
presentation, conventional perspective and syntax in a tho­
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roughgoing manner, replacing all sorts of bourgeois aesthe­

tics with typographical representation, disjointed images,
sounds rather than pretentious and limited (inaccurate)
words, and the decentralization of logical mind into "non­
sensical” humor, paving the way to the movement of the absurd
and automatism.
The early phase of Dada became known to the Japanese in

3 Andr& Breton, from "Two Dada' Manifestoes," Robert

Motherwell, ed., The Dada Painters and Poets (New York,
1951). x>. 203.

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 1920, and it served in the following years to change the
current mode of Japanese poetry, which now came to see an
era of Dada* This new development was far more than just
accidental* During the 1910*s, "modem" Japanese poetry,
whose history had started in 1882 with the publication^ of
Shintaishisho (New Style Poetry), an anthology of transla­
tions of various Western poetry, a book in which the trans­
lators introduced the term "new style" as opposed to the
traditions of haiku and tanka, marked an important period
of symbolismo Owing a great deal to such anthologies of

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French and German poetry in Japanese translation as Ueda
Bin*s Kaicho-on (Sound of the Tide, 1905), Nagai Kafu*s
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Sango-shu (Corals. 1913)i and Horiguchi Daigaku's Kino no
hana (Flowers of Yesterday, 1918), and to Arthur SymonS-ts
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The Symbolist Movement in Literature, the Japanese transla­

tion of which appeared in 1913* most of the Japanese symbol-
ists, as the author discussed elsewhere, exhibited at times
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a fusion of the aspects of European symbolism and their own

Buddhist background* Thus, new conventions in Japanese
poetry were established* the long-traditional Japanese
rhythm, pattern of seven-five (also five-seven) syllables
was broken ..to a great extent; the language shifted from a
classic literary style (bungotai) or a neoclassic style to
a more familiar colloquial style (kogotai); along with these

^ Ko Won, "The Symbolists* Influence on Japanese Poetry,"

Comparative Literature Studies* Vol. VIII, No* 3 (September
1971).

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 changes, poetic vocabularies and metaphorical images were
enriched more than ever.
In sharp contrast with this, another aspect of the
Japanese poetry of the same period was marked by a tendency
toward the popularization of the ideas of democratic and
socialistic, enlightenments as shown in the so-called minshu-
shi or poerty for the mass. While this type of poetry, which
formed a school and reached its height toward the end of the
decade, also employed the colloquial style, it could not
escape the looseness of expression, bacause it was little

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concerned with aesthetics. Naturally, the poets who belonged
to this school were confronted with the attack by those who
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emphasized poetry as a work of art.
At the turn of the decade, many younger poets became
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disgusted with the kind of lyricism which was too personal

to express the dramatically changing phases of the age on the
one hand, and the descriptive style which was too prosaic for
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the intensity of modern man's thought and feelings, on the

other. They found both aspects still disagreeable, and wanted
a further modernization of Japanese poetry as much as they
were eager to revolutionize the political and social systems
of Japan. Under these circumstances, Dada refreshed their
ideas and expressions in the beginning of the twenties, a
decade which saw an epoch-making development of avant-garde
and of proletarian literature in Japanese literary history.
It was Takahashi Shinkichi (born in 1901) who became the
pioneering poet of the Dada movement in Japan, which flourished

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 during the first half of the twenties.
In general, there is a big difference between the West
and Japan in the scale and nature of the Dada movements.
Western Dada (in both its inception and development) was a
truly organized movement in the sense that those poets who
shared similar ideas— often in collaboration with artists,
sometimes with musicians also— participated together, although
places and times varied, in the publication of their mani-
festative, theoretical, anddcreative works in journals, many
of which were founded for this particular purpose, and in

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various group activities, such as demonstrations, theatrical
events, and the reading of "simultaneous poetry." On the
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other hand, Dada in Japan was, strictly speaking, seldom
organized as a movement. As far as poetic works are concern­
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ed, Takahashi was the sole Dada at the outset, aside from
Tsuji Jun*s moral support. It was only after some of Taka­
hashi es Dada poems had been published in 1921 and 1922 that
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there appeared other followers of Dada. Personal contact

among those who claimed themselves to be dadaist was very
much limited* Takahashi met Tsuji in 1921 for the first time,
and, as Kikuchi Yasuo points out, Dada in Japan was "permeat­
ed" through the friendship between the two writers.-* It was
in 1922 that Takahashi became acquainted with Hirato Renkichi,
the Futurist who was also interested in Dada and whose futurist
works attracted the former. The younger Dada, Nakahara Chuya,

Kikuchi Yasuo, Gendaishi no taidoki (The quickening

period of modern poetry; Tokyo, 1967),'p. 259*

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 met Takahashi only in 1927, shortly before Nakahara wrote
£
an essay on Takahashi. Although there were some short­
lived little magazine^ devoted to Dada in the early part of
the 1920*s, they seem to have been least influential. A
group of anarchists launched a radical poetry magazine called
Aka to kuro (Red and Black) in 1923, which some of the con-
temporay Japanese historians tend to associate with the Dada
movement,.but the member poets were, in a strict sense, anar­
chists who felt certain affinity with Dada rather than Dada
adherents. In this respect, Tsuboi Shigeji seems right in

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observing the following:

The impact of Dadaism appears to have been felt to a

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degree, where it produced Ca special} atmosphere rather
than as a theoretical influence. However, even if itswas
limited to that extent, Dada as a poetic spirit had the
power as strong as to set what was moving within each
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poet's inner world on fire. A characteristic element

common to those poets of that time [the early, 1920's}
who were more or less dadaistic was the awareness of
self-decomposition, and the explosion of energy accom­
panying this decomposition served as the basis of their
poetic spirit.7
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While the Japanese Dada and semi-Dada poets brought

about a revolution in both subject matter and expression,
they soon encountered the communists' criticism that Dada
was nothing,more than intellectual escapism and that it inter­
fered with ,the social revolution. As the proletarian lit­
eratyractivity grew vigorous in the latter half of 1925,
there went on an uncompromising conflict between the leftist

^ According to Kikuchi, ibid., p. 256, Nakahara*s essay,

"Takahashi Shinkichi ron" (On Takahashi), was enclosed in
his letter of September 15, 1927, to Takahashi.

7 Tsuboi, Gendaishi wa do avunde kitaka (How did modem

poetry develop?! Tokyo, 1955)# PP» 200-201•

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 ideology-oriented writers and the other side. Meanwhile,
the year 1925 marked a point of departure for the surrealist
movement in Japan. Aside from Horiguchi Daigaku's new and
influential translation of contemporary French poetry, Gekka
no ichigun (A Group Under the Moon), which included the
poems of Philippe Soupault and Ivan Goll, the professor-poet
Nishiwaki Junzabtiro attracted young Japanese poets of the
time with the French surrealist publications which he had
brought with him on his return from Europe in 1925 • In the
same year, the writings of Louis Aragon, Andre Breton, and

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Paul Eluard.were published in Japanese translation in a little
Bm^e! tambi (Literary Aestheticism), in which also
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appeared somewn r? •:r^^ealistic poems by Japanese. In due
course, the ^urr^alist movement— perhaps the best organized
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i*.i the history of Japanese literary movements— surfaced in

l;^2y, when, a called Bara, ma.iutsu. gakusetsu (Hose,
Magic, fhsory) was published for the surrealists, alongside
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E\n anthology of their writings, Fukuiku taru kafu yo (Frag­

rant StrokerOi this trend lasted for a decade or so there­
after.®
It is true that none of the Japanese Dada poets has ever
bc-sn officially associated with the surrealist movement in
Japan. Ibis was unlike the situation in France, where. Dada
was -taken over- by surrealism. Although Dada was preceded
8
For a further discussion of this movement see the
author's article, "Surrealism in Prewar Japanese Poetry,"
to he PBbi&sfted in Literatttca East & West. XVI-1, scheduled
for the Spring 197^ •

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 11
by symbolism and followed by surrealism in the history of
Japanese poetry, it seems proper to say that the symbolist
fashion was still going on, Hagiwara Sakutaro having been
an important symbolist poet, along with futurism in the Dada
period*
Despite the fact that the Dada movement in Japan was
short-lived and small-scaled, the Dada works of Takahashi
Shinkichi, the author of seventeen books of poetry in addition
to ten volumes of essays on art and three collections of lit­
erary essays, are significant and important not only because

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they exerted a remarkable influence on other Japanese poets,
both Dadas and non-Dadas, an influence which served to mature
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the modernity of Japanese poetry, but also because they re­
veal a fascinating blend of Dada and Buddhism, especially
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Zen. Takahashi, as he has repeatedly emphasized, found in

Dada a perfect affinity with Zen. Also, the poet has ack­
nowledged on several occasions, directly or indirectly, the
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impact of Tristan Tzara on his philosophy and writing. The

Japanese Zennist-poet even presumes that the Rumanian-born
cosmopolitan had a profound Buddhist background. All this
provides new ground for an examination of Dada, in general,
and Tzara's work, in particular, from the viewpoint of East­
ern philosophy. A search of the available literature reveals
that a careful comparative study of these subjects has never
been done either in the East or the West.
With primary emphasis on the analysis of Takahashi's
early poems, articles (published much later than the poems

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 12

to examine), and other related material f this thesis is in­

tended to probe and prove the following issues?

(1) In both Japanese and Western Dada poetry, the notion

of nothingness, the discredit of words and logic, and
anti-conventionalism are predominant. Underlying these
attitudes, at least in part, is Asian thought, particular­
ly Buddhist ideas. There are also some Taoist elements.
These aspects are found especially in the works of Taka­
hashi and Tzara.

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(2) Not only in their ways of thinking but also in their
poetic expression, these two poets (both of whom are in­
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terested in art as well) show us, in a number of cases,
a close relationship between Dada and Zen in terms of a
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paradoxical, often totally illogical and sometimes non­

verbal, presentation of essence.

As to methodology: the writer's approach toward this

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particular area of comparison cannot advance beyond the

possibility of parallelism at this time, because no suffi­
cient material which might prove Tzara's Buddhist background
has been found. The author has corresponded concerning the
crucial question, as acknowledged in the Preface to this
work, with those who are either resourceful specialists in
the field of Dada or personally related to Tzara. With
sincere gratitude and privilege, some of their replies are
quoted here *

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 13

Even in his CTzara’s] notebooks, I saw nothing that would

give a clue to that aspect.
- Mary Anne Caws (September 3, 1973) -
I can't think of any references in the Doucet Tzara hold­
ings on Buddhism and/or Taoism.
- Elmer Peterson (October 20, 1973) -
J'avoue que votre sujet de th&se m'etonnet je n'ai jamais,
au cours de mes entretiens avec Tristan Tzara, aborde la
question du Bouddhisme et ses ecrits ne me paraissent pas
particuli&rment impr£gn£s de cette philosophie. Mais
peut-etre me tromp^-je et allez-vous nous apporter dans
ce domaine des lumi&res que nous n’avions pas au voir.
- Michel Sanouillet (November 7* 1973) ~

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As far as I can know, my father had no connection with
Buddhism. That does not mean that similarities with
Eastern writers cannot exist, but it would be the result
Of unconscious convergence, and not of a deliberate study.
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- Christophe Tzara (November 9, 1973) -
I have been through a lot of his fTzara's) papers, and
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found numerous notes to art nfegre. Nietzsche, Nostradamus,

indicating that he did read and study them.
- Gordon Browning (November 21, 1973) -
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Whereas the English translations of Takahashi's poetry

have been published in a few anthologies since 1957 none
of these books include, except only one poem, the poet's
Dada samples. Unless otherwise indicated, all the trans­
lations of the Japanese works— both poetry and prose— used
in this thesis are the writer's. Oriental personal names are
romanized with the surname coming first, i. e., Takahashi
Shinkichi, for example, instead of Shinkichi Takahashi. The

^ For information on these publications see Bibliography,

Anthologies of Japanese Poetry in English Translation.

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 original titles of books, poems, essays, and other works in
Asian and Western languages other than English are given in
the original with translation when they appear for the first
time, and thereafter they are cited in English only, except
where the original is particularly necessary.

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 15

CHAPTER ONE

THE POINT OF CONTACT

!• The Introduction of Dada into Japan

Unlike the manner in which Symbolist poetry and Sur­

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realism were introduced into Japan by translator-poets or
scholars, Dada became known to the Japanese public through
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its journalists* It seems reasonable to assume that Kurt
Schwitters was the first among Western Dadas to appear in
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a Tokyo daily newspaper; it was in 1920 that the Manchoho
published an anonymous article, "A Strange Phenomenon in
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the Art Circle of Germany* Schwitters* Merz Pictures,"
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in which.the word "dadaist" was used for the first time in

Japanese writing. More than just a report, this short
article contained the columnist's comments on the paintings
and sculpture exhibited in Germany around 1920* "Externally,
it (the tendency} is nothing other than an extension of

"Doitsu bijutsukai no kigensho* Shuviterutsu] no

•merutsu* ga," Manchoho, June 27, 1920. Cited in Kikuchi
Yasuo, The Quickening Period of Modern Poetry, pp. 136-
138, 217-218.

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 16

Futurism, Cubism, and Berliner Sezession: internally, how­

ever, it may be interpreted as that which has, in a confusion
of the cruelty of war and the misery of defeat, fallen into
a formless chaotic state*" In explaining Schwitters' use
of materials, the article defined his Merzbild as "not a
Gemalde but a Gebilde, the word Merz having no particular
meaning*" These comments thus seem to have alluded, though
at a superficial level, to some aspects of a new artistic
movement in Europe, with a slight hint of Dada (namely, an
undertone ,of despair and chaos), the use of unorthodox non­

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art materials, and the use of chance*
This was followed in the same year by two longer arti­
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cles more specifically on Dada itself, published together
as "The Latest Art of Epicureanism* Dadaism Becoming Popular
EV

in the postwar Era," by Shiran, 11 and "A View of Dadaism,"

_ 12
by Yotosei. In an attempt to define the difference bet­
ween Dada and Futurism, the former, filled with fragmentary
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information on the Dada movement, and generally more critical

11
Shiran (a pseudonym for Wakazuki, a Maeterlinck
translator), "Kyorakushugi no saishin geijutsus sengo ni
kangei safe tsutsu aru dadaisumu," Manchoho. August 15»
1920 .
12 —
Yotosei (a pseudonym for the unknown columnist),
"Dadaizumu ichimenkan," ibid* The articles by Shiran and
Yotosei are reprinted in Takahashi Shinkichi, "Nihon no
dadaizumu undo" (The Dada movement in Japan), Shigaku
(Poetics), May 19^3, pp. 7*1—78.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
 17

than synpathetic toward It, refers to Tristan Tzara's word

on "the abolition of everything— home, morality, common sense,

memory, archeology, prophets, and the future."13 Shiran fur­

ther quotes as one of the Dada principles from Tzara, with no

source specified, that "Dada is not madness, nor wisdom, nor

irony, look at me, there's a good man. Art was a hazelnut

14
game.” Criticising Dada’s "lunatic and playful" manner

of expression, the columnist, in attempting to sccount for?

the uselessness of man's action and word, argues that many

explanations of it can be found in Buddhism and Nietzsche.

His overall interpretation of Dada is summed up as fsllsss:

W
"Dadaism is, after all, a kind of Bolshevism and nihilism in

literature and art) Dadaists are extreme epicureans, thorough­

IE
going individualists, nihilists, and realists. • • . They

aim at the destruction of love, philosophy, psychology and

EV

everything) they are sort of mad destroyers who will recognize

certain senses only.

PR

13
Although not mentioned, the reference alludes to
Tzara's "Dada manifesto 1918."

1*Tristan Tzara, "manifests de B. Antipyrine" (Br.

Antipyrine's manifesto "), trans, Bary Ann Caws in Tristan
Tzarat Approximate Wan and Other Writings, p. 147.

13Translated add quoted from Takahashi, op. eit.,

p. 75.

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 Th8 other article by Yotosei provides more specific

information on the Dada movement* with a list of European*

American* and Brazilian Dadas and their publications, in­

cluding SIC, Litt6rature. 391. and The Blind Wan. Y5tSsei

also supplies more relevant quotations* including these frem

Tzara98 "Dada Manifesto 1918*” published in Dada Me. 3* in

the folloningt "I am against systems* the mest acceptable

16
system is the one of not having any system* on principle"j

"I proclaim the opposition of all cosmic faculties to this

gonorrhea of a putrid sun ... Dadai abolition of the future."

W
Also* referring to ttalter Serner9s "Manifesto, *The Last
18
Loosening,* published in Dada No. 4," IE Yotosei cites a

quotation* in Japanese, mhich he equates mith "an idler*s

somniloquy." His translation of Serner's oords readst

EV
Everybody knoms that dog is not hammock.
Fem knots, homever, that a fist hits the
artist's head mithout this tender hypothe­
sis* And nobody knoms that exclamations
are the best. The norld viem is a confu­
sion of oords* • • • A rhetorician is net
PR

an ass. * . One can hold semen's silk

stockings, but he can hardly grasp a
genius. 19

Despite his sarcasm, Yotosei goes on to consider the reason

shy an outlook of this kind had drasn the public attention

16Cass, op. cit., p. 154.

17Ibid., p. 156.

^®Ths reference is to Dada 4~5* Antholooia Dada and to

"Letzte Lockerung " by Serner.
19
Takahashi, op. cit., p. 76.

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 19

as a new litsrary-artistic principle in a direct relation

to the downfall of Futurism* He points out the fact that

the major Futurists* including Filippo Rarinetti* had turned

out in the midst of mar to proclaim nationalism, anr idea

nhich profoundly disturbed the European writers who had

witnessed the misery of ear* prefsrriaginstead interna­

tionalism » Thus the Dada ideas of anti-war and anti-nationa­

lism were made pointedly clear*

It was in this article that the first sxeerpts from

Western Dada poems in Japanese translation appeared! seven

W
lines from "Attraction" by Walter Serner* and five lines
2Q
fr«E "Phantastisehe Gebete" by Richard Huelsenbeck.
IE
Yotosei* however* did net choose to present these poems

because of a belief in their value, but only to exemplify

EV
the "extreme strangeness of contents," in his words, and

the "outrageousness of expression" of Dada poetry* His

criticism culminates in the observation that Dadaism is

PR

"nothing but hedonism, a product of the mentally effeminate

writers' unsteadiness*"

It is ssrth pointing out that painter-peet Kambara

Tal published in Qeteber* 1920* Dai-ikkai Kambara Tai

senoensho (The First Kambara Tai manifesto), which shows

some aspects of Dada* Although he j&s always been re-

20
The textual sources of these two poems are net
known$ Yotosei only mentions that the originals were
written in a mixture of French and German*

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