@inproceedings{oai:kokubunken.repo.nii.ac.jp:00002159,
 author = {張, 小玲 and CHANG, Xiao Ling},
 book = {国際日本文学研究集会会議録, PROCEEDINGS OF INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON JAPANESE LITERATURE},
 issue = {14},
 month = {Mar},
 note = {pdf, In "TaKasebune Engi"("The Origin of 'Takasebune'") , Mori Ogai himself described how he came to write his short story, "Takasebune"("The Boat on the River Takase ") , set in the Edo period. He claims that his interest was sparked by the two issues of contentment and euthanasia touched on in an extra printed page of a manuscript being revised by Ikebe Yoshikata that he happened to glance at, and thereupon he began to write "Takasebune." The majority of Japanese literary critics have relied on this statement by Ogai as the single piece of trustworthy evidence available in their studies of "Takasebune."
In fact, however, we can discover a number of intrinsic connections between the issues of contentment treated in "Takasebune" and the short story "Erling" ("Fuyu no O"ー"The King of Winter") by H. Land, which Ogai translated in January of Meiji 45 (1912), prior to writing "Takasebune." In addition, he also translated T. Kroger's "Sokrates Tod" ("The Death of Socrates"), which deals with a kind of euthanasia, about ten years before he wrote "Takase bune," and thus it is clear that he was already thinking about that issue as well.
"ERLING" is the story of Erling who, after five years in prison, makes a winter journey to an uninhabited island. Erling remains there for 25 years as the "King of winter," living a peaceful, solitary life, enjoying his lot of freedom. The narrator admires Erling, who has already reached a state of spiritual awakening, and he "unconsciously pays hommage to him ."The narrator's esteem for Erling's satisfaction with his life corresponds to the respect that the policeman Shohei feels for the contented figure of Kisuke, who is being taken off to jail, in "Takasebune."
"Sokrates Tod"is about a painter who, having gone blind, gives up on life. His close friend, a physician, makes up a dose of poison for him. The painter takes the poison and ends his life as his friend the doctor reads him a passage from the Bible. We can compare the doctor who assists in the painter's suicide to Kisuke in "Takasebune;" the painter is the counterpart of Kisuke's brother. 
I happened to discover a work entitled "LoLi" in a collection of poetry by the Tang dynasty literatus Hanyu. This poem was written when Hanyu, demoted as a result of having angered the emperor with his "Discourse on the Remains of the Buddha," was being sent to Chao state. Hanyu's masterpiece takes the form of a dialogue between a criminal and the bureaucrat LoLi as they are being transported in a boat down the swift current of the Lo River. The prisoner asks LoLi what Chao state is like and LoLi tells him about poisonous miasmas in terrifying mountain streams and the frightening thunder. The prisoner replies ,"however far away Chao state may be, it is not so horrible that one cannot live there. To me, it is a blessing." His attitude compares to that of Kisuke as he's being taken off to jail. We might even infer that Ogai felt similarly when he was transferred to Ogura. "Takasebune" is thus not only a work about peace of mind and euthanasia, but conceals within it something larger and more profound.},
 pages = {72--88},
 publisher = {国文学研究資料館},
 title = {研究発表　森鷗外の「高瀬舟」と外国文学},
 year = {1991},
 yomi = {チャン, シォリン}
}