Keqing walked through the city streets, taking in the Eastern Island of the Taisho era. It felt incredibly dreamlike. This place seemed like a blend of the modern and the ancient, with skyscrapers, entertainment venues, near-modern machinery, and shops.
Yet some areas still retained the old architecture of the Edo era!
Peers of the realm danced gracefully at Western-style balls. Spirited soldiers waited for steam trains at the stations, while female students in two-shaku-sleeved blouses, hakama, and bows in their hair studied diligently in classrooms.
Gentlemen in suits and literary masters in kimono conversed elegantly in coffee shops, while maids gracefully served coffee topped with fresh cream.
Even commoners at the bottom of this stratified society were fortunate enough to enter theaters and watch plays by the Takarazuka Revue.
The Eastern Island of this period was somewhat like a miniature world, preserving the contradictions and complexities of Eastern and Western civilization at once while moving forward in stable directions.
Art, literature, and the cultural industries had likewise developed tremendously. No longer the exclusive domain of the imperial family and aristocracy, the commoner class had produced a great many painters and literary masters. Idealism and individualism had been amplified during the Taisho era.
Material life had become immensely abundant thanks to the "unimpeded road." The imperial family's control over politics was quite lax, and the status of merchants and industrialists had risen considerably amid liberal national thought. Commerce was increasingly respected, women's status had improved, and they could attend school as well.
Of course, the most noteworthy figures were the literary masters of this era: Natsume Soseki, Ryunosuke Akutagawa, Osamu Dazai, and so on...
This was the golden age of literature.
Ryunosuke Akutagawa's Rashomon Gate and Hell Screen, Natsume Soseki's I Am a Cat...
Looking at this vibrant era before