Before the Dawn

by Tōson Shimazaki, William E. Naff (Translator)

The high drama of the years following Commodore Perry’s arrival in the waters off Uraga has never been recreated more brilliantly than in this masterpiece by one of Japan’s greatest novelists. Before the Dawn recounts the turmoil, the tragedy, the dislocations, and the spiritual and intellectual adventures of life as Japan entered the modern world.

The Tokugawa shogunate had held the country secure from foreign intrusion for more than two hundred years, but Perry’s Black Ships signaled the end of the old order. Under mounting pressures from internal and external enemies the shogunate crumbled and fell, to be replaced by a new government that soon betrayed the hopes of many of those who had worked hardest and sacrificed most to bring it into being.

Tōson anchors his vision of the fall of the Tokugawa shogunate in the harsh and rugged beauty of the Kiso district of central Japan, focusing on the life of the great highway that runs through it, on the people of the village of Magome that had been founded by one of his ancestors, and on the life of Aoyama Hanzō, a character closely modeled after his own father.

Based on scrupulous historical research, Tōson’s narrative moves back and forth between the microcosm of the Kiso and the macrocosm of national and world politics, asking the questions that would have been asked long ago if only the world had known enough to ask: What did the coming of Perry really feel like to those in power in Japan, to those in the directly involved coastal areas, and to those in the hinterlands? What was the flavor of daily life, and what did the great human cost of the Meiji Restoration mean to individual lives?

Today it is Before the Dawn, more than any other single work, that has come to inform the Japanese perception of the nature and significance of the transition from late Tokugawa to early Meiji. And in its evocation of the richness and complexity of life during the final years of traditional Japan, Before the Dawn remains the standard by which all other accounts are mentioned.

Genres: Japan, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Japanese Literature, Classics, Literature, Translated Fiction

828 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 1929

About the author

Tōson Shimazaki is the pen-name of Shimazaki Haruki, a Japanese author, active in the Meiji, Taishō and early Showa periods of Japan. He began his career as a poet, but went on to establish himself as the major proponent of naturalism in Japanese literature.

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shimazaki Tōson's monster-sized novel is technically fiction, though it has been commented that it is so full of historical detail that it is just as useful as a work of history. Before the Dawn is the chronicle of the highs and lows of the Aoyama family (a family modeled closely on the Shimazaki family), who were the founders and village headmen of Magome village in the famed Kiso Valley in central Japan. It is the story of Hanzō, who was based on Tōson's father, and his attempts through the kokugaku ("Native Studies" or "the study of our land") movement to bring reform to Japan's feudal society. Hanzō ultimately sees this change occur within his own lifetime, but he and the other kokugaku students find that their brightest dreams are disappointed under the new reforming, modernizing, and increasingly Westernizing Meiji government. While the most sympathetic characters' worldviews are quite definitely in favor of reform and the idea of progress, Tōson's slow and measured and laborious prose effectively serves as a counterweight to kokugaku zeal, urging the reader to be critical of the ideology of these patriotic students and of their new government. And for all this, the book also shows that there was real value in traditional Edo period society, real tenderness between fellow human beings despite their hard lives. Before the Dawn is not overly liberal or conservative in its tone, but leaves the reader to decide for himself the best way to interpret history. For though he poured his soul into the history of the final days of the Tokugawa and of the first days of the Meiji restoration, Tōson's primary concern was not in interpreting history, but in preserving and honoring the memory of his father and of his family.

[Jindřich Zapletal · Rating 5 out of 5]

For me, this was a complementary reading for a thorough study of Japanese history. While the book is fiction all right, it includes long purely factual sections on the details of the breakdown of the Tokugawa regime, and even the development of characters is based on actual family records. Even though translator's introduction is very helpful, the book presumes a good knowledge of Edo period culture and politics. An attentive reader will treat this as a prerequisite.

The best part for me was that the book offers a perspective of Tokugawa fall that is not usually treated in books of scholarly history: the perspective of countryside folk (even though the main characters come from the richest and best-connected segment of countryside commoners). It also provides structure to that eventful period which to me was hard to find in history books.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

Whilst the focus in "The Family" was very tight (and some readers were left thinking "Where's the Russo-Japanese war?") ... "Before the Dawn" includes a lot of the history and politics of the time: Perry and his black ships, the Boshin War, the Meiji Restoration, etc. Very dry.

[Vojta Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A long and difficult book to get through. However, it gives you all of the context of the era it describes and an easily relatable (though heartbreaking) story of those affected by the Meiji restoration. All the while being sensitive to the beautiful nature of the Kiso valley.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating, stately novel about idealists who get chewed up and spit out by the very social changes they seek. Before the Dawn takes place in the decades following Japan's 1853 "Black Ships" event, when the USA's Commodore Perry arrived, unannounced and uninvited, to force Japan to open itself to world trade.

Perry's arrival, one of history's more bla... [see the rest on my book review site.]

[Anne Connolly · Rating 4 out of 5]

A deep portrayal of Japan leading up to and during the Meiji. The shogunate demise and the fall of feudal Japan was described in detail. The key character, the authors father is not a strong man. We follow his demise as we move through the most important part of Japanese history. I think the book could have been edited better but that would have been difficult as very few people had written about this part of Japanese life and editing back then would have been uncommon. It's a challenge for the reader but worth it. The problem was that we didn't delve into many characters even though their were many who moved through the book. It was only the father and a few of his close friends and colleagues that had any depth at all. No women were described in any realistic way and this was both a reflection of Japan in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and it was a huge emptiness left unfilled.
I am glad I found reference to this book in Murakami's latest novel; typical hidden gems in his stories.

[Joseph Hlebica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Have just begun reading this massive tome, reputed to be one of the greatest works of historical fiction in all of world literature. That's all. So far, it's living up to its reputation, especially well considering the translation. There are so many books by non-Japanese authors on the same general historical era and subject matter, the "opening" (more correctly, the extortion) of Japan to the west by America and the European colonial powers during the 19th Century, but none come close to being as evocative of the true feel of Japan and its natives as this one, by Shimazaki Tozon, a direct descendent of the family depicted in his 1932 novel.

[Pat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bought this because I am walking the Nakasendo Way, which includes Magoma and the Kiso Valley. I won't pretend this wasn't a tough read-- way more history than an account of a fictional family. But what a crucial time in Japan's history! Hanzo was an unlikeable protagonist, always dithering around and running off on spiritual quests when his family needed him.

[natalia · Rating 4 out of 5]

"everyone is always talking about tomorrow, tomorrow. but no matter how long you wait, that tomorrow will never come. today, you see, passes in the twinkling of an eye. isn’t the past all that is genuine and real?"

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a tough and long read. Interesting though as it gives the reader a ringside seat to an important slice of history at a personal level.