Comparative Literature Studies

Comparative Literature Studies 37.2 (2000) 182-195

The Structure of a Tragedy through the Coming of the Black Ships: Shimazaki Toson's Before the Dawn, and Hamlet

Saburo Sato

Most of the commentators on Before the Dawn (Yoake Mae 1932) have declared that all that Toson Shimazaki (1872-1943) wanted to communicate could be found in Before the Dawn; this book is the greatest monument of modern Japanese literature. ¹ Toson was trying with all his strength here to get to the root of his own character. He was passionately trying to express all of himself in this one book. He was expressing the great changes wrought by the Meiji Restoration and how it affected the Japanese people. Before the Dawn tried to express this period as it was in reality, in a modern poem. ²

The average reader would not be allowed to assume that the character of Toson should be seen in the main character, Hanzo Aoyama. If the reader considers Tosonís greatest work Before the Dawn from the standpoint of comparative literature, and not from the autobiographical viewpoint, however, he will have reason to reevaluate this book, and his enjoyment will increase. Moreover the reader will see that Before the Dawn has a universal scale, beyond that of merely great Japanese literature.

Why did Toson write about the coming of the Black Ships? If we do not understand the reason why he brought up the coming of the Black Ships, we cannot understand the cause of the confusion and the madness of Hanzo Aoyama. After Toson finished Before the Dawn, he had a conversation with Suckichi Aono, in which Toson uses music as an analogy for his novel:

I think that when you look at my novel, you shouldn't think of the hero as the hero, or the background as the background. For [End Page 182] example, if you play a musical instrument, you produce melody and harmony. Sometimes the harmony is easier to hear than the melody. You donít have to consider the life of the hero as the melody, and the background playing behind it. This way of thinking may be a little different from what you are used to in a novel. (Iino 150)

It is interesting that Toson should refer to music here for his example. Music makes its effect by combining many sounds together to create harmonies and melodies. The listener is moved as the sounds are combined to create a good melody. There must be tension among the sounds for them to have this effect. The tension forms when the sounds ask and answer each otherís questions.

The reason why Toson referred to music here was, I believe, that he felt like a conductor, bringing out the harmony in his literature. He felt that Aoyamaís fear and depression were the main sounds to be brought out in his novel to create a melody. This is true for music, but it is also true for plays. Plays also have harmonies and melodies to be brought out. Even if Toson had not actually said this, I assume that he believed it. He had been a playwright. He had written in the style of Shakespeare. ³ In those three plays, he showed that he had learned the style well enough to imitate it.

Toson's favorite Shakespeare play was Hamlet. When Toson had trouble in his relationship with Sukeo Sato, he went to Kyoto and prayed at Ishiyama Temple on the way to Kyoto. He left his copy of Hamlet at the temple. I would like to argue, keeping Hamlet in mind, that Before the Dawn was a success only because it followed the technique of Hamlet. Toson also improved his novel through his insights into three other tragedies of Shakespeare, Othello, Macbeth, and King Lear. One can see the influence of Shakespeare all the way up to the novel The New Life (1919).

When Hamlet appears in Act 1, Scene 1 of the play, it is as harmony...