Abstract: Bungaku, now translated as "literature," came to be defined as a type of fine arts in Japan's Meiji period (1868-1912). Despite how self-evident the idea of literature seems in retrospect, in the early Meiji period bungaku could range in meaning from historiography, to belles-lettres, to Chinese classics, and others. The emergence of bungaku as a fine art as well as the exclusion of other possibilities took place against a larger backdrop of nation building, modernization, and technologization. This presentation focuses on a dualistic rhetoric of kyo-jitsu and examines how that rhetoric functioned to bridge bungaku and fine arts.