The Broken Commandment — Summary and Characters
A father's command: hide who you are
- Author
- Shimazaki Tōson
- Published
- March 1906
- First appeared in
- Written for book publication
- Form
- Novel
- Genres
- Social
- Psychological
- Setting
- Nagano
- Length
- 202,968 characters
- Reading time
- About 6 hr 46 min
- Orthography
- Modern script, historical kana
About this work
The novel Shimazaki Tōson published at his own expense in 1906. Having begun as a poet, he turned to fiction, and this was his first attempt: a young schoolteacher from a discriminated-against community, caught between his father's command to hide his origins and his conscience, which wants to confess. Its willingness to look straight at the reality of discrimination made it a landmark of Japanese naturalism, and Natsume Sōseki thought highly of it.
Summary
Segawa Ushimatsu, a young teacher at an elementary school in Iiyama in Shinshū, was born into an outcast community and lives keeping his origins strictly hidden. Keeping his father's stern commandment never to reveal his birth to anyone, and applying himself to his work as a teacher, he is at the same time strongly drawn to Inoko Rentarō, a thinker born to the same condition who declares his status openly and fights against discrimination. In time news comes of his father's death, and when Rentarō, whom he reveres, meets a violent end, the pain of concealment and Ushimatsu's disgust at his own self-deception grow stronger and stronger. At last he confesses before his pupils that he is the son of an outcast, and so breaks his father's commandment. What awaited the young man who had given himself to the truth was to be driven from his classroom. In the figure of a young man who chose to live without falsehood, Tōson cut deeply into both the conscience of modern man and the pitilessness of society.
Characters
- Segawa Ushimatsu A young teacher at the elementary school in Iiyama. The protagonist, who lives hiding the fact that he was born into an outcast community
- Inoko Rentarō A thinker who declares his own origins and fights against discrimination. Ushimatsu reveres him and is guided by the way he lives
- Oshiho A girl who has taken shelter at the Rengeji, where Ushimatsu lodges. He is secretly drawn to her
- Tsuchiya Ginnosuke Ushimatsu's close friend and fellow teacher, who worries over his distress and tries to support him
Chapter-by-chapter synopsis
The app covers this work chapter by chapter (full text in the app).
- 1. About This Work
- 2. Main Characters
- 3. Major Supporting Characters
- 4. Opening — A Wealthy Guest Driven from His Lodgings, and Confessions
- 5. The Night of the Emperor's Birthday — A Calling Voice, and the Father's Death
- 6. Return Home — A Grave at the Ranch, and a Meeting with His Mentor
- 7. Unable to Speak — The Slaughterhouse, and Farewell at Ueda
- 8. The Secret Closes In — Takayanagi's Bargain, and the Town's Rumors
- 9. Rentarō's Death, and the Broken Commandment
- 10. Conclusion — Leaving the Snow-Bound Chikuma
- 11. Key Motifs and Foreshadowing
The opening (original text)
The Rengeji also took lodgers. The room that Segawa Ushimatsu, having suddenly taken it into his head to move, decided to rent was the corner room on the upper floor next to the priest's quarters. The temple is one of some twenty and more in the town of Iiyama in Shimominochi county in Shinshū, an old temple belonging to the Shin sect; and leaning on the window of that upper floor one can see, past a great gingko tree, a part of the town of Iiyama. It is indeed the foremost Buddhist ground in Shinshū, a small city where one seems to see antiquity before one's eyes; from the strange northern style of the buildings, the plank roofs and the special deep eaves used against the snow in winter, up to the temples and the tops of the trees standing high here and there — the whole old-fashioned prospect of the town appears wrapped in the smoke of incense.
The Broken Commandment by Shimazaki Tōson (Aozora Bunko)
The ending (original text)
So he spoke, and repeated words to the same effect to the pupils who were reluctant to see him go; and presently Ushimatsu made to get into the sledge. "Good-bye to you." Those were Ushimatsu's words when he saw Oshiho for the last time. Past the withered branches of the desolate willows on the bank, the prospect of the town of Iiyama opened out on the right. The roofs of the houses ranged along the opposite bank, the tall temple buildings here and there, the site of the old castle, of which only the hill remains — all of them, wrapped in snow, could be seen faintly white. The white walls of the elementary school and the bell tower of the Rengeji, which can also be seen from this bank on a fine day, were hidden by the sleeting sky. Ushimatsu looked back two and three times, and when he let out a deep sigh, hot tears ran down his cheeks in spite of himself. The sledge began to slide over the snow.
The Broken Commandment by Shimazaki Tōson (Aozora Bunko)
Famous passages
At Renge Temple, lodgers were also taken in.
A spare first line that offers only a setting, no explanation. It opens a monumental novel of Japanese Naturalism, moving toward the confession of the young teacher Segawa Ushimatsu, who lives concealing his origins.
The secret of his whole life had been as simple as this: “Hide it.” His father's commandment was contained, in full, in this single word.
A scene in which Ushimatsu recalls his father's commandment never to reveal his origins. The struggle over whether to keep or break this single word runs through the entire story, moving it toward confession.
Read the original
The original Japanese text is available at Aozora Bunko, and the app downloads the same text for its vertical-text reader.
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