Shimazaki, Toson

	Poet and novelist Lived: 1872-1943 Birthplace: Magome Juku, Nagano, Japan

Toson (real name: Haruki) Shimazaki was born in Magome Juku, a bustling post town on the Nakasendo Highway, in Kiso, Nagano Prefecture in 1872. He was the youngest in a family of four boys and three daughters. His father, Masaki Shimazaki, was the last of the illustrious family to run an officially appointed inn for daimyo (Japanese lords). The family had for generations run this inn. Family members were also well-to-do wholesale merchants and village headmen.

Toson's interest in literature was awakened at Meiji Gakuin, a private Protestant college in Tokyo, through his friendships with essayist and translator Baba Kocho and Togawa Shukotsu .

In 1892 Toson began teaching at Meiji Jogakko (Meiji Girls School). Toson founded the journal Bungakkai ("Literary World") with Toukoku Kitamura and others in 1893. While a teacher, he pioneered a new Japanese verse form, and published poems.

In 1897 the Wakanashu anthology was published. At the time it was seen as the beginning of modern Japanese poetry. His work as a teacher at the Komoro Private School, a school supported on donations, lead him to write Chikuma River Sketches.

In 1906 Broken Commandment (Hakai) established his reputation as a novelist. This story about an outcast schoolteacher is considered the first Japanese naturalist novel. He now became noted as the flagbearer of the naturalist school and wrote The Family and Shinsei. His last work in this series is the important novel Before the Dawn (Yo'ake no mae). This historical drama is based on a fictionalized account of his father's life and expresses Toson's view on the Meiji Restoration, which pushed Japan into the modern world.

His last work was East Gate (Toho no Mon).

Toson died of a stroke, aged 71, in 1943.

Highlights

  1872 - Born in Magome Juku, Kiso, Nagano Prefecture
  1893 - Founded the journal Bungakkai ("Literary World")
  1897 - Publishes Wakanashu anthology
  1906 - Publishes Broken Commandment (Hakai)
  1943 - Dies of stroke

More Information

  Before the Dawn : Toson Shimazaki's masterpiece at Amazon.com
  Chikuma River Sketches : Toson Shimazaki's novel at Amazon.com
  Essay : SHIMAZAKI Toson looks back at the nineteenth century
  Tsumago Juku : a town appearing in Before the Dawn
  Brief introduction to Toson Shimazaki's hometown

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