Although he only wrote one novel, three novellas and a few dozen short stories, Shiga Naoya has had a significant impact on twentieth-century Japanese literature. He occupies a dominant place in modern Japanese fiction. As Donald Keene writes, "No modern writer was more idolized than Shiga Naoya. A half-dozen writers were recognized as his disciples, and innumerable others were so greatly influenced by his writings as to recall Shiga on every page." Such prominent writers as Akutagawa Ryunosuke, who wrote the story Rashoman, have admired Shiga's writings. Among his contemporaries, he has been called "the god of literature." Even when critics question the value and significance of his work, they concede that he remains an important figure in Japanese literary history, not only for his contributions to the development of the I-novel, but for his precise,.....
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