概要 / description

日本近代文学を代表する作家永井荷風（本名壮吉　1879～1959）とその家族に関する資料群。荷風の弟威三郎（1887～1971）の遺族からの寄贈による。
荷風と威三郎の父・永井久一郎（1852～1913）は、尾張藩出身で、旧藩時代には儒学を修め、明治維新後米国留学を経て内務省や文部省等の官僚を歴任した。明治30年(1897)官を辞した後は、日本郵船に入り上海支店長等を務めた。
久一郎の長男荷風は、早くから作家活動をしながら父の意向で米国や仏国へ外遊、帰国後は慶應義塾文学科主任教授を務めながら数多くの作品を発表した。また、三男の威三郎（1887～1971）は、農学者となり米・独へ留学、東京高等農林学校（現東京農工大学）等で教鞭を執った。
本資料群は、久一郎が残した文書類や漢学資料、威三郎が兄荷風や親類友人等から受け取った書簡類、そして家族の写真等からなる。本資料群を通じて、明治期の官僚・実業家永井久一郎の事歴を知るとともに、永井荷風の文学的思想形成の基盤となった家庭環境を理解することができる。

A material group related to Nagai Kafū (real name: Sōkichi, 1879–1959), a foremost writer of modern Japanese literature, and his family. It was donated by the bereaved family of Kafū’s younger brother, Isaburō (1887–1971).
Kafū and Isaburō’s father, Nagai Kyūichirō (1852–1913), was from the Owari Domain. He studied Confucianism in the former feudal domain period and after studying in the United States subsequent to the Meiji Restoration, he served as a bureaucrat of the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Education, and so forth. After resigning from his government position in 1897, he joined Nippon Yusen Kaisha and served as a branch manager in Shanghai and other positions.
Kyūichirō’s eldest son, Kafū, began his literary career early in life and studied and traveled in the United States and France as his father intended. After returning to Japan, he published a lot of works while serving as a head professor of literature at Keio University. Also, Kyūichirō’s third son, Isaburō (1887–1971), became an agriculturist to study abroad in the United States and Germany, and afterward he taught at Tokyo Kōtō Nōrin Gakkō (present-day Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology) and other institutions.
This material group consists of documents and Chinese classics materials that Kyūichirō left behind, letters that Isaburō received from his brother, Kafū, and other relatives and friends, as well as family photographs and the like. This material group enables us to learn the personal history of Nagai Kyūichirō, a bureaucrat and business person in the Meiji era and to understand the home environment that formed the foundation of Nagai Kafū’s literary thought.