Shimaki lived in Kamakura, Kanagawa prefecture from 1937, and was part of a social and literary circle which included Kawabata Yasunari, Kobayashi Hideo and Takami Jun. However, his first novel, "Saiken" ("Reconstruction", 1937) was banned by government censors as it sympathetically depicted a man convicted for his left-wing convictions. Shimaki had intended to write a sequel, in which the man rejected Marxism, but never had the chance. Instead, he produced "Seikatsu no tankyū" ("Quest for Life", 1937), which was well received by the authorities, as it depicted people having a productive life despite difficult conditions during a national emergency.