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From the above explorations, it can be established that Katai could have read Einsame Menschen before October 1901, and that being the case he must have read an English version.
Katai's Onna-Kyōshi, or The Woman Teacher, written in 1903 closely follows the same theme as that of Einsame Menschen, but his attempt fails. A critique appearing in Teikoku Bungaku, or Imperial Literature, severely criticized Katai's superficial description and his lack of analyses of the characters' emotions which created conflicts in the development of his story.[1] Taking into account this critique I surmise that the superficial description and inadequate character analysis was due to Katai's lack of imaginative power in creating characters endowed with vivid individual personalities and also to his inability to detail their motivations as required in plausible fiction.
While Katai failed in his characterization in Onna-Kyōshi, he appeared to be able to remedy these shortcomings in Futon by actual experiences with Michiyo Okada, as he reminisces in his memoirs: "Needless to say, if my own Anna Mahr had not shown up in my actual life, Futon would not have been written even though I already had that idea."[2] Let us examine if what Katai states in the above quotation can be borne out.
Michiyo, a graduate of Kobe Women's College, was living with her parents in a small village in Hiroshima Prefecture.[3] Her parents
