CONCEPT OF KOKUTAI AS NATIONAL ESSENCE IN THE FOUNDATION OF JAPAN'S IMPERIAL SUBJECTNESS IN LATE XIX — FIRST HALF OF XX CENTURY

Year 2018, Volume: 4 Issue: 11, 510 - 515, 31.08.2018

Olga Yazovskaya

https://doi.org/10.18769/ijasos.455681

Abstract

In this research, I examine the concept of kokutai as a mode
of state mythology that functions as an ideological basis of imperial
subjectness of modernization period Japan. To aid the research, I analyze two
of the most important sources of kokutai: Imperial Rescript on Education (1890)
and "Kokutai no Hongi" (Cardinal Principles of the National Essence
of Japan) Ministry of Education pamphlet (1937); beginnings of its creation in
the works of School of National Disciplines and the Mito School are also
studied. The research shows that the concept of kokutai provides an argument
for Japanese nation's exceptional and supreme status, as well as Japanese
emperor, divine heritage as a father of the nation, through ancient Japanese
mythology.

Keywords

concept of kokutai, empireness, state ideology, modernization, Japan

References

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