Shimazaki Toson (1872–1943)

Author of Broken Commandment

32+ Works 205 Members 4 Reviews 2 Favorited

About the Author

Poet and novelist Shimazaki Toson was raised on an old mountain road well-traveled in feudal Japan. As a young man, he lived in Tokyo, then retreated to the northern city of Sendai and lived in Paris during World War I. The poetry of Shimazaki's youth was inspired by the English romanticists. show more Written in a new, freer style, it set off a movement that eventually liberated Japanese verse from the dominance of tanka andhaiku. As a novelist, Shimazaki is perhaps best known for The Family (1911), acclaimed as a masterpiece of naturalistic fiction. His complex writing is passionate in its attention to the human dimension of abstract ideological clashes during turbulent historical transitions. (Bowker Author Biography) show less

Includes the names: imazakitson, 島崎藤村, Tosan Shimazaki, Toson Shimazaki, Simadzaki Toson, Tōson Shimazaki, Tōson Shimazaki, Tˆoson Shimazaki

Works by Shimazaki Toson

Popular Recent

Broken Commandment (1906) 85 copies

Before the Dawn (1935) 44 copies

The family (1911) 23 copies

Chikuma River Sketches (Shaps Library of Translations) (1961) 11 copies

El precepto roto (2011) 7 copies

夜明け前 (第2部下) (新潮文庫) (1978) 3 copies

破戒 (まんがで読破) (2007) 2 copies

夜明け前 (第2部上) (新潮文庫) (1978) 2 copies

春 (新潮文庫) (1950) 2 copies

Hakai (破戒) 2 copies

Zavjet (1987) 2 copies

Une famille (1984) 2 copies

新生上 (新潮文庫草 55-13) (1955) 1 copy

藤村詩集 (新潮文庫し 2-15) (1968) 1 copy

藤村詩集・嵐 (日本の文学 (14)) (1975) 1 copy

夜明け前全4冊 (岩波文庫) (2010) 1 copy

千曲川のスケッチ (新潮文庫) (1955) 1 copy

大東京繁昌記山手篇 (平凡社ライブラリー) (1999) 1 copy

島崎藤村 (ちくま日本文学全集) (1993) 1 copy

千曲川のスケッチ (1961年) (岩波文庫) (1961) 1 copy

夜明け前 (第1部上) (新潮文庫) (1978) 1 copy

新生下　新潮文庫草 55-14 (1955) 1 copy

平和の巴里 1 copy

藤村随筆集 (岩波文庫) (1989) 1 copy

夜明け前 (第1部下) (新潮文庫) (1978) 1 copy

Tōson shishō: Shimazaki Tōson jisen 藤村詩抄 1 copy

Haru (春) 1 copy

Chikumagawa no sketch (千曲川のスケッチ) 1 copy

Nihon dōwashū 1 copy

Yoakemae. English^Before the dawn / Shimazaki Toson ; translated by William E. Naff 1 copy

Moderne japansk lyrikk 1 copy

Selected Works / Izbrannye proizvedeniya 1 copy

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Associated Works

信濃の旅―紀行と随想― — Contributor — 1 copy

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Common Knowledge

Legal name: Shimazaki Haruki
Birthdate: 1872-03-25
Date of death: 1943-08-22
Gender: male
Nationality: Japan
Places of residence: Magome, Japan (birth)
Oiso, Japan (death)
Occupations: poet
novelist

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Reviews

Before the Dawn by Shimazaki Toson

I generally do not like sad novels, but this is one of the most wonderful books I have ever read, even though its hero dies insane with despair over the betrayal of his life's work. It is an astonishingly real picture of life in a post station on the Northern Road through the Japanese mountains in the days just before and after the Meiji Restoration. The hero is the hereditary head of a posthouse village providing bearers for important travellers (the road is so steep all traffic is by foot) ; he supports the gallant fighters seeking to restore the
empire, but then finds that the Meiji government has
abandoned his ancient ideals in pursuit of modernization.… (more)

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antiquary | 1 other review | Jan 10, 2008 |

The Family (Unesco Collection of Representative… by Toson Shimazaki

Of the Shimazaki works I have read, I like this least, chiefly because I find it too grim.

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antiquary | Dec 24, 2007 |

The Broken Commandment by Toson Shimazaki

Well-known early novel about the "problem" of the Eta outcastes; the hero is an Eta whjose father has insisted he "pass" for normal Japanese. He has become a popular school teacher, but jealous colleagues "out" him as Eta. Ultimately he accepts his heritage. Besides realistic school intrigue this includes some beautiful descrption of Japanese landscape of the isolated Eta village to which he returns for his father's funeral.

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antiquary | Dec 21, 2007 |

Before the Dawn by Shimazaki Toson

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sasameyuki | 1 other review | Aug 17, 2021 |

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