The Father-Son Relationship in Toson Shimazaki's The Broken Commandment and William Shakespeare's Hamlet

Among Japanese modern writers, there is probably no one who has been influenced by Shakespeare as much as Shimazaki Tôson (1877-1943), in particular Shimazaki was influenced by Hamlet as he made the transition from established poet to novelist. Published in 1906 with unprecedented critical acclaim for the lowly novelistic genre, Shimazaki's Hakai (The Broken Commandment) remains foundational for further developments in the genre in Japan, as well as providing an important cultural memory of the Meiji period.¹ Comparison with Shakespeare's play is one method we can use to interpret this complex work. I would like to discuss the importance of the novel in Japanese literature while considering the technical aspect of the opening of The Broken Commandment in comparison with Shakespeare's Hamlet.

The Broken Commandment opens with a chapter entitled "Renge-ji Temple." The protagonist, Segawa Ushimatsu, decides to move out of his rooming house into the dingy lodgings of the temple. He is prompted to do so by the fact that a member of Japan's burakumin or pariah class (previously known as eta) has just been ejected from the rooming house: "That in reality he [Ushimatsu] was an eta, a "new commoner," as the official phrase had it, no one had any idea."² The "official phrase" referred to is from the Edict of Emancipation of 1871, which officially abolished caste discrimination and renamed the burakumin as "new commoners." It is easy for the reader to be caught unawares by the special symbolic nature of this opening. It is in fact similar to the scene that opens Hamlet, as Bernard raises his voice to the gloom and shouts, "Who's there?" (I.1 l. 1) as if he were asking the audience.³ While it may be too much to say the first line of a great work of poetry or literature represents a divine word, I wish to stress the importance of the symbolic meaning of "Who's there?" As in appreciating the organic nature of all art, it is necessary to first recognize the major theme of a novel and then to understand how the other constructed parts relate to it; the author concentrates language to ensure that an organic connection stands between each word.

In both these works, the protagonists suffer as they try to understand the proper way to live. There is nobody to assist them, and beliefs that have sustained them previously are now of no value. This isolation they feel leads them to a path they must walk alone. Friends are only hindrances and doubt surrounds them, forcing them to fight and create a new world for themselves. In resisting the storm that threatens to engulf and destroy them, the success or failure of the hero to establish new values becomes the tenor of the story represented in the dialectic, "To be or not to be."

The Broken Commandment and Hamlet are works that underline the absence of outside salvation, but which for that reason are all the more grounded in self-sufficiency. This being the case, how can we interpret "Renge-ji," the name of the temple, in the first line of The Broken Commandment, that is, what does it indicate concerning the intention of the writer? This will give us insight into the themes and motifs and the interior struggles faced by the main character.

I start with a description of Renge-ji, where the main character Ushimatsu decides to board, and of the temple's adopted daughter, O-shiho. Renge-ji temple, a fictionalized version of Iiyama, Nagano Prefecture, founded in 1692, belongs to the Jôdo-shinshû sect of Buddhism that broke away from the larger Jôdo-shû sect during the Kamakura period under the leadership of the founder, Shinran. Shinran held that re-birth in heaven was possible through belief in the Amita Buddha, as opposed to achieving salvation through one's actions. In other words, one was led to heaven through belief in the Amita Buddha; faith is placed in a force outside the self. As the...