'Japan's first modern novel" was published serially between 1887 and 1889.

A magazine article of 1887 helps us get our bearings: "It is now over 20 years since the Restoration; our Meiji society will soon have gone through a whole generation. ... The ways of the East will disappear; the ways of the West will soon overtake us. The period for destroying the old will end and the time for building the new will be upon us."

The novel's title is "Ukigumo" ("Floating Clouds") — which strikes rather an odd note. The Meiji Era (1868-1912) was characterized by pell-mell modernization, industrialization, commercialization and devil take the hindmost. "Floating Clouds" fell by the wayside. There was no time for them. Before we even open the book, therefore, we know, more or less, that the hero is an antihero: sensitive, intelligent, idealistic, sincere, loving — a hopeless failure. To the wayside with him.