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The Meaning of the Textile Industry Described in “Chimwon” by Yokomitsu Riichi -Focusing on the Shooting Incident Caused by Nanae-

  • 日本硏究
  • 2023, (58), pp.69-89
  • DOI : 10.20404/jscau.2023.02.58.69
  • Publisher : The Center for Japanese Studies
  • Research Area : Humanities > Japanese Language and Literature
  • Received : January 5, 2023
  • Accepted : January 19, 2023
  • Published : February 20, 2023

Seo-Yeong Shin 1

1도쿄대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

Yokomitsu Riichi’s “Chimwon” is a full-length novel published in 1930 during the Showa Depression. This novel deals with the unfortunate love of ‘Kaji’ and ‘Nanae’, who work in the textile industry and the shooting accident where Nanae injure husband ‘Niwa’ after Kaji’s bankruptcy. Particularly noteworthy in this novel is the fact that all characters are engaged in the textile industry; moreover, the occurrence of the stock collapse determines the flow of the novel. All of these textile manufacturers pursue the hobby of shooting. During a social gathering at the shooting range run by the ‘Okura Gun Shop’ under the OkuraGumi, which has dominated the textile industry through a textile cartel since around 1930, the scene depicts textile manufacturers seeking to eliminate individual capitalists like Kaji and pursue stock investment and price fixing using capital from the Japanese government. As part of the Japanese military’s invasion of the continent, the process of transforming Japan’s textile industry into a military industry is revealed through the shooting of textile manufacturers, a character riding an armored vehicle ‘Crossley’ to the shooting range, and a description of the production of new uniforms. Through social gatherings of textile manufacturers held at the shooting range, Yokomitsu shows readers the tone of the Japanese industry, which strengthens the national monopoly capital, while also illustrating the military expanding its invasion of the continent after the Manchurian Incident.

Citation status

* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.