We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Kokugaku and an alternative account of the emergence of nationalism of Japan.
- Authors
Ichijo, Atsuko
- Abstract
Out of a concern with the often implicit western‐centricity of theories of nationalism which are currently dominant, the article proposes to shift the focus of analysis onto the working of human agency in our understanding of nations and nationalism. Drawing from insights from the history of ideas, it argues that, contrary to the modernist account, the rise of nationalism of Japan can be traced back to the rise of Kokugaku in the eighteenth century when westernisation/modernisation had not yet reached Japan. Kokugaku scholars were engaged with intense collective self‐reflection and proposed answers to the question who the Japanese were and what Japan should be without adopting the formula of national imagination generated in the West. The article suggests that a focus on human agency has the potential to free inquires into non‐western parts of the world from the deeply embedded western‐centricity of conventional social theories, thus enriching our understanding of the world.
- Subjects
JAPAN; NATIONALISM; CULTURAL nationalism; EIGHTEENTH century; WESTERNIZATION; ACCOUNTS
- Publication
Nations & Nationalism, 2020, Vol 26, Issue 1, p263
- ISSN
1354-5078
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1111/nana.12501