Shimazaki Toson
(1872–1943), poet and novelist. Shimazaki Toson is the pen name of Shimazaki Haruki. Born in Magome in Nagano Prefecture, Toson worked as a teacher before turning exclusively to writing. Early in his career, Toson wrote "new style poetry," a romantic strain of poetry longer and freer than traditional Japanese verse. Many literary historians consider his anthology Wakanashu (Collection of Young Leaves, 1897) one of the earliest works of modern poetry in Japan. Nonetheless, Toson is best remembered as the foremost novelist of Japanese Naturalism, a movement that aspired to depict the human condition with scientific precision. Toson's first novel, Hakai (The Broken Commandment, 1906) displays an unprecedented attention to psychological detail and represents a milestone in the development of the modern Japanese novel. It also is one of the first novels to depict the difficult lives of the burakumin, a caste of social outcasts relegated to the edge of Japanese society.
Toson drew upon his own experiences and those of his family in later work. Haru (Spring, 1908) was based upon his experiences as a young writer. In Ie (The Family, 1910–1911), Toson depicted the decline of two families, one much like his own. Shinsei (New Life, 1918–1919) describes the tortured emotions of a protagonist, who like Toson, had an affair with his niece, and Yoake Mae (Before the Dawn, 1929–1935) is a reworking of Toson's father's experiences in the tumultuous Meiji era. A 1981 Japanese edition of Toson's complete works contains twelve volumes.
Further Reading
McClellan, Edwin. (1969) Two Japanese Novelists: Soseki and Toson. Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle.
Shimazaki Toson. ([1906] 1974) The Broken Commandment. Trans. by Kenneth Strong. Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press.
——. ([1929–1935] 1981) Before the Dawn. Trans. by William E. Naff. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Press.
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