is a 1929 short novel by Japanese author

Takiji Kobayashi was a Japanese writer of proletarian literature. He is best known for his short novel '' Kanikōsen'', or ''Crab Cannery Ship'', published in 1929. It tells the story of the hard life of cannery workers, fishermen and seamen on board a cannery ...

which was first serialized in the May and June 1929 issues of the communist literary magazine ''

Senki ''Senki'' (戦旗, "Battle Flag") was a Japanese proletarian literary magazine in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Overview ''Senki'' was a Japanese proletarian literary magazine published between May 1928 and December 1931. Background In ...

'' In September of the same year, it was released as a standalone book by Senki Company. The book was banned by government censors, but not before selling 15,000 copies. The novel has been released in English as ''The Cannery Boat'' (1933), ''The Factory Ship'' (1973), and ''The Crab Cannery Ship'' (2013).

Background

Kobayashi began writing the work late in 1928 and finished in March of the following year. It was not based on any personal experiences of the author, but was influenced by Yoshiki Hayama's semi-autobiographical novel '' Umi ni Ikuru Hitobito''. The work's immediate inspiration came from Kobayashi's reading of a newspaper's description of floating crab cannery workers who had been treated brutally and sued their captain on their return to shore. Kobayashi considered his use of a collective protagonist rather than a singular hero was a step forward in the creation of a

proletarian literature Proletarian literature refers here to the literature created by left-wing writers mainly for the class-conscious proletariat. Though the ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' states that because it "is essentially an intended device of revolution", it is t ...

, a claim he made in a letter to his mentor

Korehito Kurahara Korehito Kurahara was a Japanese Marxism, Marxist literary critic. He wrote under the name Soichiro Furukawa. Early life and education Kurahara was born in Tokyo on January 26, 1902. His father, Korehiro Kurahara, was a politician. Kurahara s ...

immediately upon completion of the work. The letter also shows the influence

orthodox Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to: Religion * Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pag ...

Marxism Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflict, ...

had on Kobayashi roughly two years after his reading of ''

Das Kapital ''Capital: A Critique of Political Economy'' (), also known as ''Capital'' or (), is the most significant work by Karl Marx and the cornerstone of Marxian economics, published in three volumes in 1867, 1885, and 1894. The culmination of his ...

''.

Plot

The work has no single protagonist, and the only named character, the superintendent Asakawa, is portrayed as an inhuman monster. The other characters are various groups of oppressed people: fishermen who began as impoverished farmers and plan on using their earnings to rehabilitate their farms, but wind up resorting to drinking and whoring in

Hakodate is a Cities of Japan, city and seaports of Japan, port located in Oshima Subprefecture, Hokkaido, Japan. It is the capital city of Oshima Subprefecture. As of January 31, 2024, the city had an estimated population of 239,813 with 138,807 househol ...

and

Otaru is a Cities of Japan, city and Seaports of Japan, port in Shiribeshi Subprefecture, Hokkaido, Japan, northwest of Sapporo. The city faces Ishikari Bay and the Sea of Japan, and has long served as the main port of the bay. With its many historical ...

; factory hands in their early teens who have been abandoned by poverty-stricken parents; and students who have been tricked into believing that ship work is attractive summer employment.

Themes

The book expresses a sense of pessimism from the beginning. This extends from the opening remarks to the description of

harbor as being filled with refuse to the comparison of smaller boats to insects.

Reception

''Kani Kōsen'' sold well enough that 15,000 copies were in circulation before it was banned. Abridged versions that removed politically incorrect content continued to be sold after the book was banned, but the uncut version was not reprinted until 1948. In 2008 it became one of the best-selling works of fiction in Japan, selling around five hundred thousand copies. The book was well-received by Marxist critics on its initial release, and earned Kobayashi a positive reputation. Non-Marxists were less kind: attacked the work for its portrayal of individual evil but not organizational evil, attributing all the suffering of the characters to one man in Asakawa.

Naoya Shiga was a Japanese writer active during the Taishō and Shōwa periods of Japan, whose work was distinguished by its lucid, straightforward style and strong autobiographical overtones. Early life Shiga was born in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, ...

was of the opinion that as a work of literature it should move readers directly, not by indirectly conveying ideology. Literary historian and critic

Donald Keene Donald Lawrence Keene (June 18, 1922 – February 24, 2019) was an American-born Japanese scholar, historian, teacher, writer and translator of Japanese literature. Keene was University Professor emeritus and Shincho Professor Emeritus of Japane ...

wrote that the work "succeeds not because of its message, nor because of its confident appraisal of the future, but because of the vivid, believable details of life aboard the ship." Keene praised the story's unflinching portrayal of sexual violence by the older fishermen against their younger comrades and refusal to set any one figure up as a "worker-hero".

Adaptations

In 1953, the film ''Kanikōsen'' was released, directed by

Sō Yamamura , sometimes credited as Satoshi Yamamura, was a Japanese actor and film director. Biography Yamamura was born Koga Hirosada in Tenri, Nara Prefecture, and graduated from the University of Tokyo. In 1942, Yamamura and Isao Yamagata formed the B ...

and starring himself, Masayuki Mori and

Sumiko Hidaka was a Japanese actress. She appeared in films of Tadashi Imai, Kaneto Shindō, Masahiro Shinoda and others. Selected filmography * '' Dedication of the Great Buddha'' (1952) * ''Epitome'' (1953) * ''Life of a Woman'' (1953) * ''An Actress'' ( ...

. It was awarded the best cinematography prize at the 1954

Mainichi Film Concours The are a series of annual film awards, sponsored by ''Mainichi Shimbun'' (毎日新聞), one of the largest newspaper companies in Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of t ...

. A

manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

version of first appeared in 2006, the first of four so far. During 2009, two stage adaptations were produced in Tokyo, another was produced in 2012. A remake of the film ''Kani kōsen'', directed by Hiroyuki Tanaka and starring

Ryuhei Matsuda is a Japanese film and television actor. Matsuda's best known film roles include the young and desirable samurai Sōzaburō Kanō in ''Taboo'' and the rock star Ren Honjo in '' Nana''. Early life Matsuda was born on 9 May 1983 in Tokyo, to Yū ...

and Hidetoshi Nishijima was completed in 2009.

References

Works cited

* *

External links

''Kanikōsen''
online text.