Family, State, Family-state: The Role of Family (kazoku 家族) in Maruyama Masao’s Interpretation of the Family-state (kazokukokka 家族國家)

Ferenc Takó

doi:10.4312/as.2024.12.3.33-61

Authors

Ferenc TAKÓ Eötvös Loránd University, Faculty of Humanities, Budapest, Hungary

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4312/as.2024.12.3.33-61

Keywords:

Maruyama Masao, family, family-state, kazokukokka, hōken

Abstract

Maruyama Masao (1914–1996) became a leading figure of post-war Japanese democratization with the publication of his essay “Theory and Psychology of Ultra-Nationalism” (1946). The idea of kokutai was central to his interpretation of ultra-nationalism as a concept that connected ‘nationalistic’ ideas of the late Tokugawa period with the imperialist propaganda of the 1930s. This concept was linked with the millennia-old Chinese notion of the ruler as the ‘father’ of the people in a land that is an extension of the family (jia). In Japan, however, the connection between the family (kazoku) and the nation(state) (kokka) was based on the imperial linage that upheld the blood-relation between the tennō and the deities. In the present paper, I will examine Maruyama’s interpretation of the role of the family in Japanese ultra-nationalism on the basis of his studies “The Ideology and Dynamics of Japanese Fascism” (1948) and “Nationalism in Japan: Its Theoretical Background and Prospects” (1951) (in Thought and Behavior in Modern Japanese Politics, 1956; in English, 1963), linking these essays with Maruyama’s war-time studies on the Tokugawa era. I will show that the elements on which Maruyama focused his analysis of the ‘family-state’ (kazokukokka) are those features of Japanese nationalism that he had already detected in his war-year studies; that is, features in which he saw the preservation of the Tokugawa social structure of hōkensei. I will argue that this social structure was understood by Maruyama as a power structure in which the ‘transfer of oppression’ is possible due to the decentralized, i.e., family-like character of social relationships.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Barshay, Andrew E. 1992. “Imagining Democracy in Postwar Japan: Reflections on Maruyama Masao and Modernism.” Journal of Japanese Studies 18 (2): 365–406. https://doi.org/10.2307/132825.

Conrad, Sebastian. 1999. Auf der Suche nach der verlorenen Nation. Geschichtsschreibung in Westdeutschland und Japan 1945–1960. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. https://doi.org/10.13109/9783666357985.

Davis, Walter W. 1983. “China, the Confucian Ideal, and the European Age of Enlightenment.” Journal of the History of Ideas 44 (4): 523–48. https://doi.org/10.2307/2709213.

Duthie, Torquil. 2014. Man’yōshū and the Imperial Imagination in Early Japan. (Brill’s Japanese Studies Library 45.) Leiden, Boston: Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004264540.

Eisenstadt, S. N. 1996. Japanese Civilization. Chicago, London: University of Chicago Press.

Fletcher, Miles. 1979. “Intellectuals and Fascism in Early Showa Japan.” The Journal of Japanese Studies 39 (1): 39–63. https://doi.org/10.2307/2053503.

Fukuzawa, Yukichi 福沢諭吉. 1898. “Bunmeiron no gairyaku 文明論の概略 (Outlines of Theories of Civilization).” In Fukuzawa zenshū 福沢全集 (The Collected Works of Fukuzawa), edited by Jiji Shinpōsha 時事新報社, vol. 3. Tōkyō: Jiji Shinpōsha.

Fukuzawa, Yukichi 福沢諭吉. 2008. An Outline of a Theory of Civilization. Translated by David A. Dilworth and G. Cameron Hurst III. New York: Columbia University Press.

Hamar, Imre. 2021. “The Buddhist Interpretation of the Confucianist Concept of Family: Filial Piety as Universal Compassion.” Journal of East Asian Cultures 13 (1): 3–20. https://doi.org/10.38144/TKT.2021.1.2.

Harootunian, Harry D. 1971. “Commentary on Nationalism in Japan: Nationalism as Intellectual History.” The Journal of Asian Studies 31 (1): 57–62. https://doi.org/10.2307/2053051.

Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich. 1930. Vorlesungen über die Philosophie der Weltgeschichte. Vollständig neue Ausgabe von Georg Lasson. I. Band: Einleitung (Die Vernunft in der Geschichte). Leipzig: Verlag von Felix Meiner.

Hiraishi, Nao’aki. 2003. “The Formation of Maruyama Masao’s Image of Japanese Intellectual History during the War Period.” Social Science in Japan Journal 6 (2): 241–54. https://doi.org/10.1093/ssjj/6.2.241.

Howland, Douglas R. 2001. Translating the West. Language and Political Reason in Nineteenth-Century Japan. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.

Karlgren, Bernhard. 1957. Grammata Serica Recensa. Reprinted from The Museum of Far Eastern Antiques, Bulletin 29. Stockholm.

Karube, Tadashi. 2008. Maruyama Masao and the Fate of Liberalism in Twentieth-Century Japan. Translated by David Noble. Tokyo: International House of Japan.

Katō, Shūichi 加藤周一, and Maruyama Masao 丸山眞男, eds. 1991. Honyaku no shisō 翻訳の思想 (Ideas of Translation). Tōkyō: Iwanami Shoten.

Kersten, Rikki. 1996. Democracy in Postwar Japan. Maruyama Masao and the Search for Autonomy. London, New York: Routledge.

Kitaoka, Shinichi 北岡伸一. 2018. Dokuritsu jison. Fukuzawa Yukichi to Meiji ishin

独立自尊. 福沢諭吉と明治維新 (Independence and Self-respect. Fukuzawa Yukichi and the Meiji Renewal). Tōkyō: Chikuma Shobō.

Kokutai No Hongi [Cardinal Principles of the National Entity of Japan]. 1974. Translated by John Owen Gauntlett, edited with an introduction by Robert King Hall. Newton, Massachusetts: Crofton Publishing Corporation.

Koyasu, Nobukuni 子安宣邦. 2003. “Ajia” wa dō katararetekitaka 「アジア」はどう語られてきたか (How was Asia Interpreted?). Tōkyō: Fujiwara Shoten.

Kurozumi, Makoto 黒住真. 2003. Kinsei nihonshakai to jukyō 近世日本社会と儒教 (Early Modern Japanese Society and Confucianism). Tōkyō: Perikansha.

Levenson, Joseph R. 1964. Modern China and Its Confucian past. The Problem of Intellectual Continuity. Garden City, New York: Anchor Books Doubleday & Co., Inc.

Maruyama, Masao 丸山眞男. 1969 [1963]. Thought and Behaviour in Modern Japanese Politics. London, Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press.

Maruyama, Masao 丸山眞男. 1969a. “Theory and Psychology of Ultra-Nationalism.” Translated by Ivan Morris. In Thought and Behaviour in Modern Japanese Politics, 1–24. London, Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press. (In Japanese see MMS 3.)

Maruyama, Masao 丸山眞男. 1969b. “The Ideology and Dynamics of Japanese Fascism.” Translated by Andrew Fraser. In Thought and Behaviour in Modern Japanese Politics, 25–83. London, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. (In Japanese see MMS 3.)

Maruyama, Masao 丸山眞男. 1969c. “Nationalism in Japan: Its Theoretical Background and Progress.” Translated by David Titus. In Thought and Behaviour in Modern Japanese Politics, 135–56. London, Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press. (In Japanese see MMS 5.)

Maruyama, Masao 丸山眞男. 1974. Studies in the Intellectual History of Tokugawa Japan. Translated by Mikiso Hane. Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press. (In Japanese see MMS 1 and 2.)

MMS [Maruyama Masao shū 丸山眞男集 (Collected Works of Maruyama Masao)]. 1996. 16 vols. Tokyo: Iwanami.

MMS 1. “Kinsei jukyō no hatten ni okeru Soraigaku no tokushitsu narabini sono kokugaku tono kanren 近世儒教の発展における徂徠学の特質並びにその国学との関連 (The Sorai School: Its Role in the Disintegration of Tokugawa Confucianism and Its Impact on National Learning),” 125–307. (In English see Maruyama 1974.)

MMS 2. “Kinsei Nihon seijishisō ni okeru ‘shizen’ to ‘sakui’ 近世日本政治思想における「自然」と「作為」 (Nature and Invention in Tokugawa Political Thought),” 3–126. (In English see Maruyama 1974.)

MMS 2. “Fukuzawa Yukichi no jukyō hihan 福沢諭吉の儒教批判 (Fukuzawa Yukichi’s Critique of Confucianism),” 139–61.

MMS 3. “Chōkokkashugi no ronri to shinri 超国家主義の論理と心理 (Theory and Psychology of Ultra-Nationalism),” 17–36. (In English see Maruyama 1969a.)

MMS 3. “Nihon fashizumu no shisō to kōdō 日本ファシズムの思想と行 (The Ideology and Dynamics of Japanese Fascism),” 259‒322. (In English see Maruyama 1969b.)

MMS 5. “Nihon ni okeru nashonarizumu — Sono shisōteki haikei to tenbō 日本におけるナショナリズム — その思想的背景と展望 (Nationalism in Japan: Its Theoretical Background and Progress),” 57–78. (In English see Maruyama 1969c.)

McVeigh, Brian J. 2004. Nationalisms of Japan. Managing and Mystifying Identity. Lanham, Boulder, New York, Toronto, Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Inc.

Mengzi: The Works of Mencius. 2015. Translation, notes, prolegomena and index by James Legge. New York: Dover Publications Inc. [Facsimile edition of The Chinese Classics, vol. II, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1895.]

Minear, Richard H. 1970. Japanese Tradition and Western Law: Emperor, State, and Law in the Thought of Hozumi Yatsuka. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. (Harvard East Asian Series 48.) https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674182554.

Miyata, Nana. 2012. Die Übernahme der chinesischen Kultur in Japans Altertum. (Bunka – Wenhua Vol. 22.) Berlin: Lit.

Mori, Masatoshi 森政稔. 2020. Sengo “shakaikagaku” no shisō. Maruyama Masao kara shinhoshushugi made 戦後『社会科学』の思想丸山眞男から新保守主義まで (Thought of “Social Science” after the War: From Maruyama Masao Until Neo-conservativism). Tōkyō: NHK Shuppan.

Morimoto, Jun’ichirō 守本順一郎. 2009. Nihon shisōshi 日本思想史 (Japanese Intellectual History). Tokyo: Miraisha.

Morohashi, Tetsuji 諸橋轍次, Kamata Tadashi 鎌田正, and Yoneyama Toratarō 米山寅太郎, eds. 1985. Dai kanwa jiten 大漢和辞典 (Great Chinese–Japanese Dictionary), vol. 3. Tokyo: Taishūkan.

Mustățea, Alexandra. 2019. “On the Convolutions of Modernity and Confucianism in Japan. Loyalty from Yamaga Sokō’s Shidō to Prewar Kokutai Ideology.” European Journal of Japanese Philosophy 4 (1): 131–55.

Nihonshoki 日本書紀 (Chronicles of Japan). 1897. Kokushitaikei 国史大系 (Compendium of Japanese History), vol. I. Tōkyō: Keizai Zasshisha.

Oguma, Eiji. 2002. A Genealogy of ‘Japanese’ Self-images. Melbourne: Trans Pacific Press.

Ogyū, Sorai 荻生徂徠. 1973. “Bendō 辨道 (Distinguishing the Way).” In Nihon shisō taikei 日本思想体系 (Anthology of Japanese Intellectual History), 36. Ogyū Sorai 荻生徂徠, edited by Yoshikawa Kōjirō 吉川幸次郎, Maruyama Masao 丸山眞男, Nishida Taichirō 西田太一郎, and Tsuji Tatsuya 辻達也, 200–208. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten.

Ogyū, Sorai 荻生徂徠. 2006. “Distinguishing the Way (Bendō).” In Ogyū Sorai’s Philosophical Masterworks. The Bendō and Benmei, edited and translated by John A. Tucker, 135–67. Honolulu: Association for Asian Studies & University of Hawai’i Press.

Paramore, Kiri. 2016. Japanese Confucianism. A Cultural History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107415935.

Sakamoto, Rumi. 2001. “Dream of a Modern Subject: Maruyama Masao, Fukuzawa Yukichi, and ‘Asia’ as the Limit of Ideology Critique.” Japanese Studies 21 (2): 137–52. https://doi.org/10.1080/10371390120074327.

Sasaki, Fumiko. 2012. Nationalism, Political Realism and Democracy in Japan. The thought of Masao Maruyama. London, New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203119228.

Skya, Walter A. 2009. Japan’s Holy War. The Ideology of Radical Shintō Ultranationalism. Durham, London: Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822392460.

Stevens, Bernard. 2016. “Arendt and Maruyama: Complementary Approaches to Totalitarianism.” In Critical Perspectives on Japanese Philosophy (Frontiers of Japanese Philosophy 8.), edited by Takeshi Morisato, 148–69. Nagoya: Chisokudō.

Stevens, Bernard. 2018. Maruyama Masao. Un regard japonais sur la modernité. Paris: CNRS Editions.

Takó, Ferenc. 2021. “Maruyama Masao on (Failures of) Transition in Japanese History.” In Transitions: Crossing Boundaries in Japanese Philosophy, edited by Leon Krings, Francesca Greco and Yukiko Kuwayama, 341–68. Nagoya: Chisokudō Publications.

Takó, Ferenc. 2024. “Beyond Sinophilia and Sinophobia: Tocqueville and Mill in the European Reception of China.” Philosophy East and West 74 (2): 257–80. https://doi.org/10.1353/pew.2024.a925192.

Tanaka Kyūbun 田中久文. 2009. Maruyama Masao wo yominaosu 丸山眞男を読みなおす (Re-reading Maruyama Masao). Tokyo: Kodansha.

Várnai, András. 2024. “A Mengzi hatalombölcselete. Az uralom (zhi 治) szabályairól (zhi 治), a kormányzás (zheng 政) feladatairól és a ‘kútföldekről’ (jingdi 井地) (Mengzi’s Wisdom of Power: Rules of Rule (zhi 治) and the Question of ‘Well Fields’ (jingdi 井地)].” Távol-keleti Tanulmányok (Journal of East Asian Cultures) 16 (1): 1–47. https://doi.org/10.38144/TKT.2024.1.1.

Zhong, Yang. 2015. Local Government and Politics in China. Challenges from Below. London, New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315702780.