Japanese Naturalism and the Prelude to the New Sensation Movement —Sensory Techniques in Tamura Toshiko’s Living Blood—

This study analyzes the literary work of Tamura Toshiko (1884~1945), focusing on her short story Living Blood in dialogue with Dayama Katai and Japanese Naturalist Literature. Historically, Tamura’s works has been criticized for being overly sensual and for lacking ideological depth. However, her works have since been re-evaluated for their narrative innovation and exploration of female subjectivity. Unlike male-centered, confessional naturalist narratives, Tamura employs tactile, olfactory, and visual sensations to portray the psychological and bodily experiences of her protagonist, Yuko. Living Blood foregrounds the female perspective on sexual experiences and their emotional aftermath, highlighting the asymmetry of gender relations in early twentieth- century Japan. Tamura’s use of color and light as literary devices reflects the influence of Western Impressionism and contemporaneous literary trends, including Yosano Akiko’s Midaregami, in which chromatic elements convey internal states. By situating Tamura’s work within naturalist and aesthetic contexts, this study underscores her role in pioneering a female-centered literary sensibility. Living Blood has emerged as a seminal text that integrates narrative, sensory perception, and color expression, offering insights into the negotiation of gender, subjectivity, and visuality in modernist Japanese literature.