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Paper short abstract

This paper aims to highlight the role of demimonde literati from the Bakuhan intelligentsia in establishing a genuinely popularised discourse of critical opinion outside the control of the government endorsed program of 'civilization and enlightenment' as evidenced in the Tokyo E-iri Shimbun.

Paper long abstract

Studies seeking to disinter deep continuities that traverse that major episode of (seemingly) irreversible social upheaval, the Meiji Restoration, are becoming more common place, although there would seem to be much material yet to be fully interrogated and analyzed.

This paper alights on the class of demimonde literati who were neither well connected to the new oligarchy nor had the 'relevant' training in Western studies to ensure that they would be taken up within the new post-Restoration bureaucracy or coopted within the new regime's ideological project of promoting 'civilization and enlightenment'.

In particular, attention is given to a circle of gesaku literati who combined the pre-Meiji traditions of nishiki-e and kusazoshi-gokan in a decisively innovative format of 'illustrated news'. The Tokyo E-iri Shimbun was perhaps the most prominent example, although there were illustrated variants of the Tokyo Nichi-nichi Shimbun and the Yubin Hochi Shimbun that also flourished at the time. The illustrative talent was provided by noted nishiki-e artists such as Utagawa Yoshiiku and Utagawa Yoshitoshi who had earlier established a firm popular reputation for themselves through a 1866 series of muzan-e prints which depicted gruesome scenes of violence and cruelty. They teamed up with figures such as Takabatake Ransen and Kanagaki Robun who adapted the gesaku staples of parody and sensationalism within a new cultural ecology dominated by government sponsored discourses of reform and improvement.

The aim of the paper is to demonstrate how this pre-Meiji tradition metamorphosed subtly, retaining a core of pre-restoration sensibilities but nonetheless establishing and articulating a perspective from the common populace (heimin) which would be politically disruptive and uncontrollable. The case of the reportage of the Seinan War provides the ideal vehicle for demonstrating how the formerly facile detailing of urban crimes and misdemeanors was transformed into a detailed coverage of a drama that was unfolding in the far West of the country, one which revealed the new model newspaper's capacity to develop popularized narratives (such as the hagiography of Saigo Takamori) that were in themselves deeply subversive but unable to be suppressed.

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Paper short abstract

Much scholarship examines postwar Japan in post-colonial and Cold War contexts but the aftermath of fascism has faded from view. Many Japanese responded by creating institutions such as the Kamakura Akademia, which engaged in reparative efforts now characterized as mitigating PTSD.

Paper long abstract

Much excellent scholarship examines postwar Japan in its post-colonial and Cold War contexts but the context that most riveted Japanese themselves has faded from view: the aftermath of fascism, or "post-fascism." After the war many thoughtful Japanese continued to take fascism's popularity seriously because it had addressed real problems. Fascist movements' core constituencies everywhere are young men in higher-educational, military, and—especially-- para-military organizations, including veterans' associations. (Michael Mann, Fascists, 2004 p.24) Japanese who feared the return of fascism after 1945 not only articulated new strategies to create a sense of belonging along different lines—replacing fascism's key social function--- but also established new non-violent institutions to reintegrate young people, particularly young men, often through secondary or tertiary education.

One such group created the Kamakura Akademia, which taught about 500 students from 1946 to 1951. The school engaged in the reparative efforts we characterize today as mitigating Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) as a responsibility Japanese owed to others, not just themselves. As their first postwar acts, such noted intellectuals as Saigusa Hiroto, Takami Jun, Hayashi Tatsuo, and Murayama Tomoyoshi provided an education grounded in both "global culture" and the resources of "eastern Japan's cultural city Kamakura" to counterbalance nationalism.

The relatively low level of violence in postwar Japan and the speed with which people—including three million veterans of an ugly protracted conflict--found pathways out of the wartime system remain impressive, particularly when we consider the aftermaths of other recent wars. This was due in no small part to the concerted efforts of many people to create new institutions that shaped and encouraged future behavior, including shortlived ones, such as the Kamakura Akademia.

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Paper short abstract

I will address the issue of how popular protest in the regions (Kochi) in early Meiji Japan was given a voice, not only through modern media such as newspapers, but also through the public visualization of dissidence, in this case the staging of real but also highly symbolic "newspaper funerals".

Paper long abstract

Most attention in existing research on popular protest in the early Meiji period has been devoted to violent eruptions in the Kantō region, or to how that protest affected political decisions and discussions in the major newspapers of the capital. I will show that the regions were more than sites of destructive uproar by discontented farmers. In my paper I will focus on Kōchi that stands out as a center for peaceful and progressive protest, boasting a disproportionate number of active political associations and a steady supply of vociferous newspapers. Relentless suppression by censorship authorities forced newspapers to come up with strategies to keep their presses working: "stand-in" editors were quite common as well as substitute newspapers that could immediately fill in if a publication ban had been issued. In May 1882 journalists and activists organized "newspaper funerals" to protest such a ban against the Kōchi Shimbun. Doing so, they were able to make their recalcitrance vis-à-vis censorship authorities visible to a wide group of people. The ideal of freedom of speech was given a recognizable form that marked the inclusion of an ever wider readership in a city of 30,000 people, 900 km away from Tokyo.