was the first published short story by the Japanese

Japanese people

The are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...

 writer Mori Ogai

Mori Ogai

was a Japanese physician, translator, novelist and poet. is considered his major work.- Early life :Mori was born as Mori Rintarō in Tsuwano, Iwami province . His family were hereditary physicians to the daimyō of the Tsuwano Domain...

. The story first appeared in Kokumin no Tomo (国民之友) in 1890, and is based on Mori's own experiences as a medical student in Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

. In some ways, this tale foreshadows Puccini's

Giacomo Puccini

Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was an Italian composer whose operas, including La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot, are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire...

 Madama Butterfly

Madama Butterfly

Madama Butterfly is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, with an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. Puccini based his opera in part on the short story "Madame Butterfly" by John Luther Long, which was dramatized by David Belasco...

, which deals with a similar theme but with a slight role reversal: in Madama Butterfly, a Western man abandons a Japanese woman, while in The Dancing Girl a Japanese man leaves a Western woman.

There is an animated adaptation that was released in North America by Central Park Media

Central Park Media

Central Park Media was an American multimedia entertainment company based in New York City, New York, that was active in the distribution of East Asian cinema, television series, anime, manga and manhwa titles in North America prior to its bankruptcy in 2009...

.

Plot

The story is the account of the star-crossed romance between a German dancing girl, Elise, and the protagonist, Toyotarō Ōta a Japanese exchange student who must choose between his career and his feelings for the dancer. The Japanese student eventually choses his career, sending the dancing girl into a nervous breakdown

Nervous breakdown

Mental breakdown is a non-medical term used to describe an acute, time-limited phase of a specific disorder that presents primarily with features of depression or anxiety.-Definition:...

. He leaves the girl alone and pregnant with his child, ending the story.

External links

• "The Dancing Girl" in The Columbia Anthology of Modern Japanese Literature: From 1945 to the Present, Volume 2. Richard Bowring, trans. Via Google Books.