Critical Failures revisits the overlooked messiness at the heart of Japan's early experiments with modern criticism. In the Meiji era, young intellectuals posited that mastering the art of critical reading―called hihyō ―was essential for Japan's advancement on the world stage. Yet, while they made concerted efforts to theorize hihyō and proposed ambitious ideals, their actual reading practice often fell short of what they set out to accomplish. Miyabi Goto argues that this gap between theory and practice― hihyō 's failure―opened unexpected pathways for what critical reading could be. Through vivid case studies of spirited debates about how to engage with literature, Goto traces the ways in which these early critics navigated new print spaces and forged discourses that were unruly, anarchic, and generative precisely when they failed to meet hihyō 's ideals. Critical Failures combines close reading with intellectual and media history to recast failure as a fertile ground for rethinking critique itself. In so doing, this study offers today's readers an invitation to reflect on our own critical habits and the possibility of an unprescribed mode of reading. Critical Failures brings crucial historical context and innovative literary analysis to foundational debates in late nineteenth-century Japanese literary criticism. Miyabi Goto's trailblazing work opens a window that can help us understand our own struggles to define what criticism is or should be today. -- Michael K. Bourdaghs, University of Chicago A breath of fresh air, Critical Failures allows us to explore the act of reading as a collective invention. This complex and sophisticated work will revitalize our reading of Meiji literature and inspire the next generation of scholars. -- Daniel O'Neill, University of California, Berkeley A breath of fresh air, Critical Failures allows us to explore the act of reading as a collective invention. This complex and sophisticated work will revitalize our reading of Meiji literature and inspire the next generation of scholars. -- Daniel O'Neill, University of California, Berkeley Miyabi Goto is Assistant Professor of Japanese at the University of Kentucky.