Political Context

Shiga Naoya began his career and wrote his most representative works during the Taisho period in Japan (1912-1926). According to Peter Duus in his article, "Liberal Intellectuals and Social Conflict in Taisho Japan," the Taisho period in Japan resembled the 1960s in America in that it was politically volatile as it moved from an extremely class-conscious and hierarchical society toward industrialization and democratization. Following the Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895), Japanese society became more industrialized. The industrialization accelerated after the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905) and World War I (1914-1918), increasing the population of the urban working class and laying the groundwork for the democracy movements for which the Taisho period is known. Signs of social unrest began with the anti-treaty riots of 1905 and gained momentum in the 1910s as women, students and workers in both the cities and rural areas took to the streets to demand access to the...