earticle

영어

This study examined the meaning of ‘rice and train’ in 『Shoes of the Night』 by Yokomitsu Riichi. Yokomitsu, who was accused of being a war criminal and put in harsh situations, criticized the Japanese government’s controlled economic system that spurred monopoly capital and war preparations after the Manchurian Incident through a series of works such as Fly, The Machine, and Shanghai. Paying attention to this point, this study tried to reconsider whether the ‘Japanese landscape’ described in 『Shoes of the Night』 can be treated equally with the Shindo ideology that promotes the unity of the people according to the national system of ‘the emperor rules forever’. It also attempted to consider Yokomitsu’s view of the Japanese household system through the conflict between Cujaemon and Sanwoemon Kyūzaemon and Sanuemon and the change in perception of rice. Lastly, this study not only considered the fact that Yokomitsu showed the direction of postwar Japan through the rice fields of Tohoku, the mountain of rice, but also the fact that the war destroyed Japanese traditions and built a new economic system through the important keywords rice and train.