Komoro · JP

Toson Memorial Museum

Tucked inside Kaikoen, the park laid out on the ruins of Komoro Castle, the Toson Memorial Museum is devoted to the years that turned a romantic poet into one of modern Japan's great novelists. It houses the works, documents and personal belongings of Shimazaki Toson (1872–1943), centered on his time teaching in Komoro, and makes an evocative stop on any literary walk through this highland castle town in Nagano. Toson arrived in 1899 to teach Japanese and English at the private Komoro Gijuku school, invited by his mentor Kimura Kumaji, and lived in the town for about seven years. It was here, gazing out over the Chikuma River valley, that he wrote the verses of his fourth collection and began the move toward prose that led to his masterpiece 'Hakai' (The Broken Commandment). The museum brings that pivotal chapter of his life into focus. The low, long, farmhouse-style building was designed by the noted architect Taniguchi Yoshiro and opened in 1958, after the town and former associates of Toson's school banded together to collect and preserve his manuscripts and relics. Inside, simple, well-lit display rooms present first editions, the author's own calligraphy, corrected student notebooks, photographs, letters and everyday objects from his years in Komoro.