OGAI MORI ALS ANTI-FAUST
Statement of the problem. Mori Ogai (1862-1922) is often called “The Japanese Goethe”. Like Goethe, he is not only a great poet, but also a naturalist, a military man and a politician. Moreover, he is a famous researcher of Goethe`s creative works. In his novel “Youth” (1911), that is often compared to Goethe`s work “Wilhelm Meister`s Years of Education” (“Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre”), Mori Ogai opposes the European type of soul to the Japanese one. While the first, circulating only around the “I” is based on the individualism, the second, being of great importance for the Japanese understanding of soul, is based on the attitude of the “I” to others. Hence, the other theme of the Ogai creative works is worth mentioning: self-sacrifice, which is treated by him in his famous novel “Sensyo the Governour” (“Sanshô dayû”) (1915). Results. Self-sacrifice for Ogai is serving to the others, that demonstrates the real individualism. The will to live and even to die for the others has led him to the idea of self-denial or humility. The late Ogai has vividly illustrated this idea by the image of respect over “an empty cart”, that contains “Nothing”, that, however, is a spiritual value. In this case, Ogai`s spiritual state is similar to the late Goethe, i.e. to the sense of self-denial so typical of him. Conclusion. Though Ogai was the first writer who translated Goethe`s “Faust” into Japanese, the idea of self-exaltation of this work remained alien to him. The kabuki performance “Urashima and the Treasure Chest” (1902) is the opposite to the Goethe drama, “Anti-Faust” of a sort. While the 80-year-old Faust turns to the 20 year-old young man by the forces of a miraculous drink, the young Urashima Taro having returned from the dragon palace instantaneously turns to the old man, having opened, despite all the bans, the Treasure Chest that he has brought from there. This transformation immerses Urashima into the state of indifference. This sense is not the Faust personal self-realization, but the feeling Ogai has been experiencing together with Urashima.