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A Japanese prophet: eschatology and epistemology in the thought of Kita Ikki

2011; Routledge; Volume: 23; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/09555803.2011.597511

1469-932X

Danny Orbach,

Japanese History and Culture

Abstract The life and intellectual career of the Japanese ideologue, author and revolutionary Kita Terujirō (Ikki) was, and is still, debated by scholars of modern Japanese history. While some define him a socialist and others as a fascist, many historians tend to agree that he shifted from socialism to fascism in the middle of his career, around 1916, when he was writing his second book, Unofficial history of the Chinese revolution. This article argues that, while Kita's thought certainly contained fascist and socialist elements, its connecting thread was in fact utopian and eschatological, and that Kita should be seen as a spiritual visionary rather than as a conventional socialist or fascist. Furthermore, Kita had indeed undergone a significant change while writing Unofficial history of the Chinese revolution, but this change was not ideological, but rather epistemological. In other words, a transition in Kita's understanding of how valid knowledge should be obtained shifted his ideology from a relatively peaceful to a violent, revolutionary direction. This shift had a significant impact on his famous plan for the reorganization of Japan and, therefore, on Japanese radical groups, primarily in the army, which endorsed his plan during the 1930s. Keywords: Kita IkkieschatologyepistemologyMarxismNichiren Buddhism Notes 1. The question of whether Marxist utopian thinking should be traced also to Marx, or only to Engels, is a relatively long-standing debate among interpreters. György Lukács was one of the first prominent Marxist intellectuals to criticize Engels' erroneous interpretation, in his view, of Marxian philosophy. The 'Marx versus Engels' argument was further radicalized by subsequent thinkers such as Leszek Kolakowsky and Norman Levine. Thus, the tendency among not a few Marx scholars in the west was to read Marx without resorting to the 'stages theory' of Engels. This approach is definitely not shared by all modern interpreters of Marx. Darren Webb, for example, believes that Marx did, accidentally, create a utopia while trying to do away with previous utopian thinking. In the same vein, Andrzej Walicki and Yigal Halfin both argue that the source of Marxist eschatological, utopian thinking could be traced to both Marx and Engels. 2. Although some historians, such as Shigemoto Tokoro, accused Kita of opportunistically adopting Nichiren and the Lotus Sutra only to justify his previous his 'fascist' creed, much evidence points to the fact that he was a devout, even fanatic, believer. See, for example, Takeyama Morio's (2005) analysis of Kita's 'spirituality' and the devotion to the Lotus Sutra in his diary. 3. This is a rather unusual term, unique to Kita, as a national state is usually referred to as kokumin kokka. Several assumptions are possible as to the origin of the term kōmin kokka, but it would not be unreasonable to suppose that Kita played on the sound resemblance to kōmin kokka, namely 'the Emperor's state', having the same initial sound (kō), written with a different character. This may hint at Kita's main point, that the people should have the role previously assigned to the Emperor. 4. This idea has a striking similarity to the later concept of the Showa Restoration, popular in the Seinen Shōkō Undō. 5. Kita attacks particularly the myths of the eternity of Japan's kokutai and the 'undivided line of Emperors for ages eternal' (bansei ikkei). 6. For a full text online version see: http://www7b.biglobe.ne.jp/~bokujin/shiryou1/chinakakumei3.html 7. The quote is from Kita (1959, II, 11). However, the one exception to this rule is Japan. China, as a dead nation, must rely on Japanese ideas of democracy and modernity in order to be revived. Japan is, after all, China's Asian neighbor, and the similarities between the two nations' 'Eastern ideas' make the Japanese ideals, unlike the Western ones, relevant in the Chinese context. But China should eschew any financial or military aid, even from Japan. 8. For Kita's attitude towards the Shina Rōnin, see also Tanaka Citation1959: 152. 9. See my discussion of similar phenomena in nineteenth-century Chinese revolutionary ideology, published in Hebrew (Orbach Citation2008, pp. 90–106).