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Early poetry to The Broken Commandment (破戒, Hakai) - Christianity in Tōson Shimazaki’s Works -

Im, Sung-Gyu 1

1백석대학교

Candidate

ABSTRACT

Early poetry to The Broken Commandment (破戒, Hakai) -Christianity in Tōson Shimazaki’s Works - Im, Sung-Gyu The writers who led Japanese Literature during the period of the Meiji Restoration(1868-1912) joined Christianity or had a strong interest in Christianity in their youth. This paper briefly describes the perspective of Christianity of the young baptized authors during that period. And based on the review of literature, this paper investigates how their view of Christianity changed and why they become renegades and left the churches. This is followed by key issues of Tōson's thoughts on Christianity in his transition from Christianity to apostacy with respect to his distresses and conflicts in his works. Tōson was baptized in the university, but Christianity did not lastingly affect either his thoughts. Through a study into Tōson's perspective on Christianity, this paper presents the clash of old and new values and the turbulence in a Japan feverishly modernizing itself during the period of the Meiji Restoration. Tōson deals with the internal and external struggles of men on the fringes of society and with the tension between his worldliness and the Christian spirituality in a community that preached morality and ignored humanity.

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