The force of strangers: Construction and deconstruction of Japanese national identity

This dissertation is composed of two parts. Part I introduces a general discussion of the Japanese emperor system and discusses several important points for an understanding of the emperor system. After the importance of semiological strangers for the study of the emperor system is clarified in Part I, Miyazawa Kenji, as a semiological stranger, is discussed in Part II. Through an analysis of Miyazawa Kenji's thought and writings we will find his special strategy called "the crossing-boundary-violation." Miyazawa's strategy clarifies for criticism the created structure of nation as well as Japanese "modernization" and expansionism after 1868. Part II will also deal with Miyazawa's unique thought and its limitations.;Among the poor un-marked common people, burakumin were singled out for discriminatory treatment in the theater of the modern Japanese emperor system. They were branded by the common people as semiological strangers, since the common people were not only re-affirming the ancient cosmology of the village but also the newly created Japaneseness being offered by the state through the emperor system. Miyazawa, within these circumstances, tried to reach his own self-reflection on his background and deconstruct the discourse that he saw catching up both marked strangers like himself and the burakumin and un-marked common people.;Miyazawa tried to create a communicative community opposed to the created national cosmology. His journey took many turns: through criticism of the corrupted Jodo-shin-shu sect and Shimachi Daito's pseudo-modernity, through his critical acceptance of Kiyosawa Manshi's ideas, through his experiences in the fanatic nationalistic Kokuchu-kai, through his critical acceptance of Tanaka Chigaku's interpretation of the Lotus Sutra, and through his interpretation of indigenous and foreign religions combined with that of the Lotus Sutra. His journey resulted in the strategy of the crossing-boundary-violation, which he later criticized as limited and governed by man or the modern egocentrism. Miyazawa Kenji's case shows that it is necessary to pursue the establishment of a communicative reason and ethic within the Japanese historical and cultural contexts while making good use of the self-reflective methods offered by anti-reason.