Another Ishin: Kunikida Doppo and the pursuit of freedom and equality in modern Japan

This dissertation uses the renowned literary writer Kunikida Doppo (1871–1908) to tell an unconventional story of war and revolution in modern Japan that was fought in order to safeguard human interiority from the Meiji state’s attempts to regulate and orient how and what people thought. Demonstrating his commitment to the principle of freedom and equality envisaged in the Meiji Ishin (‘Restoration’, 1868), it posits Doppo as a revolutionary. Specifically it articulates him as a cultural revolutionary since he chose to act in the field of literature, war journalism and publishing. This was a conscious choice to effect a transformation of human interiority in order to reinvigorate the progress after the Ishin that had become stagnant or even backward in the mid-Meiji period. In overturning our existing singular understanding of Doppo as a renowned literary writer of Meiji Japan (1868–1912), this thesis defies the longstanding concept of culture in the historiography of modern Japan as a category detached from politics. Rather, it illustrates that the realm of culture and thought, rather than the world of formal governmental politics, emerged as an important site for a great many people to pursue the betterment of society and mankind. Focusing on the extensive—yet understudied—activities of Doppo and examining the kinds of sources that have been rarely studied in relation to him, this thesis gives entirely new historical significance to one of the most eminent cultural figures of Meiji Japan. As it situates him in the wider historical context, its rereading of Doppo is indicative of the broader current in late nineteenth and early twentieth century Japan, which will challenge us to rethink altogether this period of modern Japanese history. Reflecting Doppo’s interdisciplinary nature, it provides significant new insights into a range of phenomena including language, religion, visual culture, popular culture, wartime propaganda, and political thoughts of modern Japan and East Asia.