Shimazaki Toson

Japanese: 島崎藤村 - しまざきとうそん

Poet and author. His real name was Haruki. His pseudonym was Kotoan Musei. He was born on February 17, 1872 (lunar calendar) in Magome-shuku (now in Nakatsugawa City, Gifu Prefecture) on the old Nakasendo road in Chikuma Prefecture (now Nagano Prefecture) as the fourth son of Shimazaki Masaki, who served as head innkeeper, village headman, and wholesaler. Masaki was the 17th generation of the Shimazaki family, but at the time of Toson's birth, the family was on the decline due to the various reforms that came with the Meiji Restoration. In 1881 (Meiji 14), at the age of 10 (by Japanese age reckoning), he moved to Tokyo to study, and thereafter grew up in the homes of relatives and acquaintances. He graduated from Meiji Gakuin in 1891. Influenced by the Christian faith she was baptized in while at school and European literature, she aspired to become a writer and began contributing to the Jogaku Zasshi (Girls' School Magazine), edited by Iwamoto Yoshiharu, and also became a teacher at Meiji Girls' School. However, she was tormented by her love for one of her students who was engaged to be married, so she left the church and set off on a journey through the Kansai region in 1893.

[Shinsuke Togawa]

Poet Fujimura

In the same year, he participated in the founding of the magazine Bungakukai, along with Hoshino Tenchi and Kitamura Tokoku, whom he looked up to as a lifelong mentor. Influenced by Tokoku, he wrote dramatic poetry, but eventually switched to new-style poetry, and published Wakana-shu (1897), a compilation of poems he had published since taking up his post at Tohoku Gakuin in Sendai, which enhanced his fame as a poet. He published three collections of poems after that: Hitohabune (One Leaf Boat), Natsukusa (Summer Grass) (both 1898), and Rakubaishu (Fallen Plums) (1901), but he gradually began to feel a gap between his own poetic ideas and the form of lyric poetry, and after he became a teacher at Komoro Gijuku in Shinshu and got married (1899), he naturally deepened his observations of life and turned to writing novels.

[Shinsuke Togawa]

Establishing his status as a writer

Having established his status as a writer with "Hakai" (1906), in his next full-length novel "Spring" (1908) he abandoned the "Hakai" style of fiction and turned to autobiographical novels based on his real life during his time at Bungakukai, which, together with Katai Tayama's "Futon" (1907), determined the direction of naturalist literature in Japan. His third full-length novel "Ie" (1910-1911) was a thorough continuation of this direction, depicting the decadent logic of an old family using himself and his family as models, and became a masterpiece of naturalism. While he was writing this novel, he lost his wife and devoted himself to raising his children and writing in silence, but then he had an affair with his niece who came to help with the housework, and feeling ashamed of his immorality, he traveled to France alone in 1913 (Taisho 2). This incident, which would later be depicted in "Shinsei" (1918-1919), was the result of his "trustless heart" born from his life as a writer, in which he had used observation as a weapon to objectify everything, and his boredom with the cumbersome daily life. Life in Paris was a "exile" to a foreign country, but it also opened his eyes to an unknown world, especially Catholic values, and became the driving force that led him to consider Japan's modernization and compare East and West. In his second year in France, just as he had become accustomed to his surroundings and was writing "When the Cherry Fruit Ripens" (1914) and was on track to correspond with his homeland, World War I broke out. He temporarily took refuge in Limoges, a city in central France, but his future prospects grew more uncertain, and financial difficulties added to the mix, so in 1916 (Taisho 5), he returned to his homeland for the first time in three years.

[Shinsuke Togawa]

Momentum for revival

After returning to Japan, he attempted to criticize civilization through his travelogue in France, To the Sea (1918), while he serialized Rebirth in the Tokyo Asahi Shimbun, confessing his immorality and depicting a revival from decadence. This novel caused a great public reaction, and it was predicted that his career as a writer would be in danger, but the public instead praised his courage and his "sincerity" as a writer, and he overcame the greatest challenge of his life. After raising four children and living a quiet and reserved life, he began a new endeavor in 1921, when the literary world celebrated his 50th birthday. Although it only lasted for ten issues, his hopes for "young life" were expressed in his founding of the magazine Shojochi (Virgin Land) (1922), which encouraged women to become aware of their future, and in sending his eldest son Kusuo back to his hometown of Magome to farm, and establishing a new Shimazaki family. His thoughts about "tomorrow" amidst social unrest such as the Great Kanto Earthquake and ideological crackdown were later depicted in the novel "Storm" (1926), and he proposed to Kato Shizuko, who was also a member of "Virgin Land" (they married in 1928), and began his own "second youth."

[Shinsuke Togawa]

Problems with modernization

His previous concerns had centered on the family, which oppressed the individual, and the father as its origin, but around this time his concerns had begun to expand to include the Black Ships, which had caused his father to die in agony in a prison cell, the impact of the West, and the modernization of Japan. Having discovered the Daikokuya Diary, an old record of a post station official in his hometown, he began serializing Before Dawn (1929-1935), a masterpiece depicting the suffering of the early stages of modern Japan, based on the life of those living along the highways that it describes. This novel was the last full-length work he completed, and it received the Asahi Culture Prize in 1936 (Showa 11).

In 1935, the Japan PEN Club was founded and he became its first president. The following year, he attended the International PEN Club Conference in Argentina with his wife, stopping off in the United States and France on the way back. His impressions of this trip were written up in "Pilgrimage" (1937), and in the midst of a tumultuous time both at home and abroad, he realized the tenacity of Japanese culture, which has continued to assimilate foreign cultures, and our country's "high destiny" in Asia. Based on this realization, he began serializing "The Gate of the East" (1943-) in the Chuokoron magazine, but shortly thereafter, on August 22, 1943, he died of a cerebral hemorrhage at his villa in Oiso and was buried at Jifukuji Temple in the same place. In 1940, he became a member of the Japan Art Academy. His distinctive feature was his vague but persistent resistance to the "family" that suppressed his ego, and his literary path lay in the fact that he delved into the issue of the self and advanced into the issue of Japanese modernization. His works are diverse, including poems, novels, the essay "From Shinkatamachi" (1909) and the children's story "For Young People" (1917).

[Shinsuke Togawa]

"The Complete Works of Shimazaki Toson, 17 volumes and 1 supplementary volume (1966-1971, Chikuma Shobo)" ▽ "Biography of Shimazaki Toson, by Senuma Shigeki (1981, Chikuma Shobo)" ▽ "Shimazaki Toson, by Hirano Ken (Shincho Bunko)" ▽ "Dictionary of Shimazaki Toson, edited by Ito Kazuo (1982, Meiji Shoin)" ▽ "Appreciation of Modern Japanese Literature 4: Shimazaki Toson, edited by Togawa Shinsuke (1982, Kadokawa Shoten)" ▽ "Shincho Japanese Literature Album 4: Shimazaki Toson (1984, Shinchosha)" ▽ "Shimazaki Toson: Methods of Novel Writing, by Takito Mitsuyoshi (1991, Meiji Shoin)" ▽ "Shimazaki Toson: Before and After 'Spring', by Sasaki Masahiro (1997, Shinbisha)"

Shimazaki Toson
National Diet Library

Shimazaki Toson

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

Japanese:

詩人、作家。本名春樹(はるき)。別号古藤庵無声(ことうあんむせい)。明治5年2月17日（旧暦）筑摩(ちくま)県（現長野県）の旧中山道(なかせんどう)馬籠宿(まごめしゅく)（現在は岐阜県中津川市に所在）で本陣、庄屋(しょうや)、問屋(といや)を兼ねた島崎正樹の四男として生まれる。島崎家は正樹で17代目の旧家であったが、藤村の出生時は明治維新に伴う諸改革で没落しつつあり、1881年（明治14）数え10歳で修学のため上京した彼は以後親戚(しんせき)や知人の家で成長した。1891年明治学院卒業。在学中に受洗したキリスト教やヨーロッパ文学の影響で文学に志し、巌本善治(いわもとよしはる)主宰の『女学雑誌』に寄稿を始め、かたわら明治女学校の教師となったが、許婚(いいなずけ)のある教え子への愛に苦しみ、教会を離れて、1893年関西放浪の旅に出た。

［十川信介］

詩人藤村

同年、星野天知(ほしのてんち)や、終生先達と仰いだ北村透谷(きたむらとうこく)らの『文学界』創刊に参加、透谷の影響で劇詩を書いたが、やがて新体詩に転じ、仙台の東北学院に赴任したころから発表した詩編をまとめて『若菜集』（1897）を刊行、詩人としての名声を高めた。以下『一葉舟(ひとはぶね)』『夏草(なつくさ)』（ともに1898）、『落梅集(らくばいしゅう)』（1901）の3詩集を出したが、しだいに自分の詩想と叙情詩の形式との差を感じ始め、信州の小諸義塾(こもろぎじゅく)の教師となり結婚したころ（1899）から自然と人生に対する観察を深めて小説執筆に向かった。

［十川信介］

作家的地位の確立

『破戒(はかい)』（1906）によって作家的地位を確立した彼は、次の長編『春』（1908）において『破戒』流のフィクションを捨て、『文学界』時代の実生活をもとに自伝的小説に転じ、田山花袋(たやまかたい)の『蒲団(ふとん)』（1907）とともにわが国の自然主義文学の進路を決定した。第三の長編『家』（1910～1911）はこの方向を徹底させた作品で、彼と一族をモデルに旧家の退廃した論理を写し出し、自然主義を代表する傑作となった。この小説を執筆中に妻を失い、黙々として育児と執筆に励んでいた彼は、家事手伝いにきていた姪(めい)と過失を犯し、背徳を恥じて1913年（大正2）単身フランスに渡った。やがて『新生』（1918～1919）に描かれるこの事件は、観察を武器としてあらゆるものを対象化してきた彼の作家生活が生んだ「信のない心」や、煩雑な日常生活の倦怠(けんたい)感がもたらしたものであった。パリの生活は異国への「流罪」であるとともに、未知の世界、とくにカトリック的な価値観への眼(め)を開かせ、日本の近代化の考察や東西の比較に進ませる原動力となった。滞仏2年目、周囲の環境になじみ『桜の実の熟する時』（1914）執筆や故国への通信も軌道にのったころ第一次世界大戦が勃発(ぼっぱつ)し、一時フランス中部の都市リモージュに避難したが、前途の不安は強まり、経済的困窮も加わって、1916年（大正5）、3年ぶりに故国の土を踏んだ。

［十川信介］

再生への機運

帰国後の彼はフランス紀行『海へ』（1918）によって文明批評を試みる一方、『新生』を『東京朝日新聞』に連載、背徳を告白して退廃からのよみがえりを描こうとした。この小説は世間的にも大きな反響をよび、作家生命の危機も予想されたが、世間はむしろ彼の勇気と作家的「誠実」を評価し、彼は生涯最大の難関を切り抜けた。4人の子を育て、ひっそりと謹慎生活を続けた彼が新たな活動を開始するのは、1921年に生誕50年を文壇で祝われてからである。わずか10号で終わりはしたが、女性の目覚めを促す雑誌『処女地』の創刊（1922）や、長男楠雄(くすお)を郷里馬籠に帰農させ、新しい島崎家を興したことには、「若い生命」に期待する彼の気持ちが表れている。関東大震災や思想取締りなどの社会不安のなかで「明日」を思う彼の姿はのちに小説『嵐(あらし)』（1926）に描かれるが、彼自身も『処女地』同人であった加藤静子に求婚し（1928年結婚）、「第二の青春」に向かって身をおこした。

［十川信介］

近代化への問題

従来の問題意識の中心には、個人を圧迫する「家」とその原点としての父の問題があったが、この時期、それは父を座敷牢(ざしきろう)の中で悶死(もんし)させた「黒船」、西洋の衝撃とわが国の近代化の問題に広がり始めていた。郷里で宿場役人の古記録『大黒屋日記』を発見した彼は、そこに息づく街道筋の生活を基盤として、近代日本の胎動期の苦しみを描いた大作、『夜明け前』（1929～1935）の連載を開始した。この小説は彼が完成した最後の長編で、1936年（昭和11）に朝日文化賞を受けた。

　1935年、日本ペンクラブが結成され、初代会長に就任した彼は翌年、夫人同伴でアルゼンチンの国際ペンクラブ大会に出席、帰途アメリカ、フランスに立ち寄った。この旅の感想は『巡礼』（1937）に記されており、内外ともに騒然たる時勢のなかで彼が自覚したのは、外来文化を同化し続けてきた日本文化の粘着性と、アジアにおけるわが国の「高い運命」であった。その認識をもとに『東方の門』（1943～）を『中央公論』に連載し始めたが、その後まもない昭和18年8月22日、脳溢血(のういっけつ)のため大磯(おおいそ)の別邸で死去、同地の地福寺に葬られた。1940年芸術院会員。彼の特質は自我を抑圧する「家」への曖昧(あいまい)だが執拗(しつよう)な抵抗にあり、自己の問題を掘り下げて日本近代化の問題に進み出た点にその文学的道程がある。作品は多岐にわたり、詩、小説のほか随筆『新片町より』（1909）、童話『幼きものに』（1917）など数多い。

［十川信介］

『『島崎藤村全集』17巻・別巻1（1966～1971・筑摩書房）』▽『瀬沼茂樹著『評伝島崎藤村』（1981・筑摩書房）』▽『平野謙著『島崎藤村』（新潮文庫）』▽『伊東一夫編『島崎藤村事典』（1982・明治書院）』▽『十川信介編『鑑賞日本現代文学4　島崎藤村』（1982・角川書店）』▽『『新潮日本文学アルバム4　島崎藤村』（1984・新潮社）』▽『滝藤満義著『島崎藤村　小説の方法』（1991・明治書院）』▽『佐々木雅發著『島崎藤村　『春』前後』（1997・審美社）』