Shimazaki Tōson: Life and Major Works

Born in 1872 into an old family that had served as head of the post station and village headman in Magome Village, Chikuma Prefecture (now Magome, Nakatsugawa, Gifu Prefecture; formerly Nagano Prefecture); his real name was Haruki. After going to Tokyo and graduating from Meiji Gakuin, he was baptized as a Christian and joined the magazine "Bungakukai," founded by Kitamura Tōkoku and others, taking part in the Romantic movement. In 1897 he published his first poetry collection, "Wakanashū" ("Seedlings"), opening the era of Romantic poetry with fresh lyricism such as "Hatsukoi" ("First Love") and laying the foundation of modern poetry. He then turned to prose, drawing on his experience teaching at the Komoro Gijuku school in Shinshū, and in 1906 self-published "Hakai" ("The Broken Commandment"), depicting the anguish of a teacher of outcaste birth, which established his standing in the literary world as a landmark work of Naturalist literature. He went on to publish the strongly autobiographical novels "Haru" ("Spring"), "Ie" ("The Family"), and "Shinsei" ("New Life"), and in his later years completed the epic "Yoake Mae" ("Before the Dawn"), modeled on his father, depicting the turbulence of the Meiji Restoration. In 1943, while writing "Tōhō no Mon" ("The Eastern Gate") at his home in Ōiso, he collapsed of a cerebral hemorrhage and died at the age of 71.