Customer Reviews

Before the Dawn

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is an immense book, nearly 800 densely printed pages which, if you're not careful, will fall apart well before you're finished. Still, its story--of how a single family experienced the downfall of the Tokugawa shogunate and the onset of the Meiji Restoration--is consistently gripping and informative. The Aoyama family, holding key positions in its post-station village of Magome on the Kiso Road, a major Edo-period thoroughfare, gradually declines in status as the tide of history rushes past on the important highway, and the author uses its story, especially that of Aoyama Hanzo (based on Shimazaki's father), to bring to life the tumultuous times it lived through in mid-19th century Japan. The detailed account of village life and political circumstances sometimes becomes tedious, but Shimazaki does make quite clear the nature of the events that shaped the time, and one learns a vast amount from his historical narrative. The characters and dialogue tend toward flatness, and there is some unnecessary repetitiveness, but the epic sweep ensnares the reader and keeps him going, even when he feels as travelers of the time must have felt as they slogged on from village to village along the Kiso. The translator's introduction and glossary go far to helping the reader navigate some of the less familiar names, events, and places. There are a couple of useful maps, but more would have been helpful as the narrative cites so many places and fiefdoms.

Shimazaki Toson's novel, BEFORE THE DAWN, is a masterpiece of literary history. Depicting life in the countryside along the Kiso Road during the end of the Tokugawa Era and into the early Meiji Era, Shimazaki's epic novel slowly (sometimes too slowly) depicts how the momentous internal and external changes of Japan during the 1850s, 1860s, and 1870s affected rural Japanese. Based upon research of his father, his grandfather, and their families, Shimazaki presents the reader with an inside-out perspective of how major nineteenth century changes affected real people.

Before the Dawn explores the world of Tokugawa Japan as a personal tribute to Shimizaki Toson's father. Toson spent years researching this work by studying history and the familial records of his family and its neighbors. The result is a book written in a somewhat stilted and isolated manner, which supposedly is quite nice in Japanese, but the translation is unable to bring through. The real value of this work is to historians, however. Though this is a fictional novel, it is based on real events and real people in rural Japan. Toson with this novel to pay homage to his father actually completed the first study of rural Tokugawa in a readable and interesting format. Those interested in this period will find it most valuable, others should stay away.

Haven't had a chance to read it yet. I will. Wish I had known that it was such a large book. More information up front would be beneficial. I probably would still have bought it - eventually.