Nippon Bunka Renmei

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Banquet on the occasion of the founding meeting of the Nippon Bunka Chūō Renmei, held in the Tōkyō Kaikan (Marunouchi district) on December 2, 1937. Speeches were given by Prince Shimazu Tadashige and the Belgian Ambassador Albert Bassompierre . Prime Minister Konoe Fumimaro gave a welcoming address .
American and Canadian teachers attend a flower arranging course in Tokyo at the invitation of Nippon Bunka Renmei (Aug. 13, 1938).

Nippon Bunka Renmei ( 日本 文化 聯盟 ), the "Japanese Cultural Association", served in the late 1930s to spread the idea of ​​the uniqueness of Japan (in the political field, bokuminkan ) on a cultural level. I.e. it served as a tool, more formed layers, e.g. Eg by means of Ikebana , as “typically Japanese art” - practiced in the early 20th century mainly by women of the educated upper middle class - to bring the concepts of Yamato-damashii and Kokutai closer.

history

Matsumoto Gaku ( 松本 学 ; 1887–1974), propagated the concept of a “world family” for international relations, which should ultimately make the League of Nations obsolete.

Around 120 members of the Hitler Youth, visiting the Japanese spa town of Karuizawa , attended a preview of the propaganda film Makiba monogatari on Aug. 24, 1938 in the town hall.

Soon after the beginning of the China incident in autumn 1937, the company was re-established as Nippon Bunka Chūō Renmei ( 日本 中央 auf ) (in English "Central Federation of Nippon Culture"). They wanted to put “cultural activities in the service of national unity”. The activities included, in addition to a lively publication activity, seminars that were intended to make the idea of ​​the “Japanese awakening” and the approach in China palatable to “influencers”. This occurred u. a. the Vice Admiral Godō Takuo (1877-1956), Takakusu Junjirō and Ashida Hitoshi . At meetings, films were also shown about the social commitment of the Hitler Youth or the Italian Navy. The propaganda film produced by Tōhō in 1938 and known in English as Tale of a Pasture ( Makiba monogatari , 牧場 物語 ) was widely used . Ideologically, as the war continued, they drifted even further to the right, but activities were severely restricted from 1941, which was also due to the fact that the ideas represented in the context of the war effort on the home front had become state doctrine anyway.

The ideas of the association continue to have an impact to this day in that most of the propagandists continued to hold influential positions after the war, sometimes after a certain period of shame. This applies to both Matsumoto Gaku and Fujisawa Chikao, who became an often-quoted specialist in Shinto . It is still possible today to obtain special long-term student visas to learn Ikebana or Aikido .

Leading staff

The first member of the House of Lords Matsumoto Gaku acted as president of the society . He was replaced by Admiral Prince Shimazu Tadashige ( 島 津 忠 重 ; 1886–1968), who retired in 1935 .

After the position of Vice President was created in 1937, the President of the Academy of Sciences ( 帝国 学士 ​​院 ), Sakurai Jōji ( 桜 井 錠 二 ) took over this post.

In the board of directors sat the cream of the Japanese fascism theorists. In the board of directors, the driving force from the beginning was the "Tennōism" preacher Prof. Fujisawa Chikao (student of Kaeki Katsuhiko ), Prof. Ishikawa Michiji and Ōgushi Toyoo. Andō Susumu acted as general secretary. Inoue Kōjirō was also on the board .

In 1938 the upper house member Koyama Matsukichi ( 小山 松吉 , 1869-1948) headed the board, he was assisted by the Deputy Minister of Education Itō Enkichi ( 伊 東 延吉 ) and Tōgō Shigenori , Japanese ambassador in Berlin.

Sub-organizations

Matsumoto Gaku ( 松本 学 ), ca.1940

In 1938 there were 297 local groups and subgroups in Japan. More important stakeholders were:

  • Hōjin-sha ( 邦 人 社 ). Dedicated to the propagation of "Hōjinism" a blood-and-soil theory that proclaimed the "absolute unity of land and man". Here, too, the leading ideologue was the communist eater Matsumoto Gaku, who worked in a leading position in the Ministry of the Interior and whose diaries, which had been kept for over 63 years, represent an important contemporary source on the rise of the right.
  • Folklore society: Nippon Minzoku Kyōkai ( 日本 民俗 協會 ). This also included dialect research.
  • “Society for the literary discussion”, whereby corresponding reading circles preferred folkish.
  • "Society for Classical Japanese Military Exercises" ( 日本 古 武 道 掁 奥 會 ) as there are Kendō , Iaidō , Kyūdō , Yabusame etc.
  • "Society for the Study of Japanese Medicine" ( 日本 醫 道 會 )
  • "Learned society for biographies (customer):" Denki-gaku kai ( 伝 記 学會 )
  • "League of Japanese Performers"

They were also associated with the East Asian Cultural Association ( 東 亜 文化 協議 會 ), which was founded in autumn 1938 to spread Japanese in the occupied part of northern China.

In-house magazines

  • Cultural Nippon, 1933–1941, quarterly. For foreign propaganda, especially English, partly in other European languages. Ishikawa Michiji was the chief editor.
  • 文化 日本 ( Bunka Nippon ), from November 1937 monthly newsletter for members, usually 12 pages.
  • 邦 人 ( Hōjin ), monthly
  • 日本 民俗 ( Nippon Minzoku ), Monthly, 1935–38
  • 伝 記 ( Denki ), 1934–45 [reprint 1974 at 広 文庫 in 11 vols.]

literature

  • Antoni, Klaus; Kokutai - Political Shintô from Early-Modern to Contemporary Japan; Leiden 1998 (Brill), open access 2016 ; ISBN 978-3-946552-00-0
  • Brown, Roger H .; Shepherds of the People: Yasuoka Masahiro and the New Bureaucrats in Early Showa Japan; Journal of Japanese Studies, vol. 35 (2009), no. 2, pp. 285-319
  • Nippon Bunka Chūō Renmei; Nippon Bunka Dantei Nenkan, yearbook, published for the first time in 1938
  • Nippon Bunka Chūō Renmei; Masterpieces of Japanese Art; Tokyo 1945, vol. 1: Nippon Bijutsu shūei, vol. 2: Architecture and gardens.
  • Oshikawa Josui [押 川 如水; 1892-1966]; Gorham, Hazel; Introduction to Japanese flower arrangement; Tokyo 1937 (Nippon Bunka Chūō Renmei) [Oshikawa represented the Shōfuryū school of flower arrangements . Both authors embarked on a six-month tour of the United States in 1938–39.]

See also

Web links

  • Typical of the driven cultural propaganda is Dai Nanko ( 大楠公 ) (English translation), a play about sacrificial death of Kusunoki Masashige 1936 made Commissioned by Nukada Roppuku ( 額田六福 ).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Cultural Nippon, Vol. 6, No. 3
  2. ↑ Wilhelm Reich had already devoted a chapter to him in 1933 in the mass psychology of fascism .
  3. ↑ Ideology explained by Fujisawa Chikao, Meaning and Aim of Hojinism; Cultural Nippon, Vol. 3, pp. ~ 417-27, in another form Vol. 5, No. 1, 1-7. The corresponding manifesto was prefixed to numerous issues in the journal as pp. I-iii.
  4. ↑ 邦 人 社; 『「 邦 人 主義 」と 世界 の 反響』 1936 (邦 人類 集).
  5. ↑ Accessible in the NDL .
Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus Matsumoto is the family name, Gaku the first name.