Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jul 8, 2026

Machine (novel)

Machine is a 1930 novel by the Japanese author Riichi Yokomitsu. It is one of the seminal works of modernism in Japanese literature. Set in a factory that makes metal nameplates, the story considers the effects of modern life on workers. The book's events unfold around conflicts over trade secrets kept hidden in a room in the center of the factory. Writing in 1930, Japanese literary critic Hideo Kobayashi noted that "the author of this work is not straining in the least for a new way of grasping human psychology" but concluded that the story is about "how a writer arrives at what he believes."

Last revised
Jul 8, 2026
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≈ 1 min
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Wikipedia ↗

Machine (機械, Kikai) is a 1930 novel by the Japanese author Riichi Yokomitsu.1 It is one of the seminal works of modernism in Japanese literature.2 Set in a factory that makes metal nameplates, the story considers the effects of modern life on workers.3 The book's events unfold around conflicts over trade secrets kept hidden in a room in the center of the factory.4 Writing in 1930, Japanese literary critic Hideo Kobayashi noted that "the author of this work is not straining in the least for a new way of grasping human psychology" but concluded that the story is about "how a writer arrives at what he believes."5

References

References

  1. Gillespie, John K. (2007). "Yokomitsu Riichi's Two Machines". In Nara, Hiroshi (ed.). Inexorable Modernity: Japan's Grappling with Modernity in the Arts. Lexington Books. ISBN 9780739156377.
  2. Keene, Dennis (1980). Yokomitsu Riichi: Modernist. Columbia University Press. ISBN 9780231049382.
  3. Hoffman, Michael (September 17, 2016). "The rise of a toxic machine named fascism". Retrieved September 25, 2018.
  4. Lippit, Seiji M. (2002). Topographies of Japanese Modernism. Columbia University Press. pp. 208–209. ISBN 9780231125314.
  5. Kobayashi, Hideo (1995). "Yokomitsu Riichi". In Anderer, Paul (ed.). Literature of the Lost Home: Kobayashi Hideo-Literary Criticism, 1924-1939. Translated by Anderer, Paul. Stanford University Press. ISBN 9780804741156.