The theory of kokutai 国体 was a pre-war Japanese concept that envisioned an imperial family with ‘unbroken lineage (bansei ikkei 万世一系)’ to rule Japan as the spiritual, ethical, and political centre of the nation. This ideology formed the core of the Japanese political system from the Meiji Restoration to World War II. It was Aizawa Seishisai 会沢正志斎, one of the leading scholars of the Later Mito Learning (kōki mitogaku 後期水戸学), who developed the concept of kokutai in New Theses (Shinron 新論). In Aizawa’s later years, Yoshida Shōin 吉田松陰 attempted to create his own theory of kokutai after discussing with Aizawa. While both the kokutai theories of the two scholars, whose philosophies greatly influenced the nationalist ideology of ‘revering the emperor and expelling the barbarian (sonnō jōi 尊皇攘夷)’, proposed a state system centred on the emperor, differences arose in response to the changes in domestic order after the arrival of the Black Ships commanded by American Commodore Matthew C. Perry.
Firstly, Aizawa and Yoshida disagree on the perception of kokutai and other countries. According to Aizawa, kokutaiconsists of the principle of loyalty and filial piety (chūkō no genri 忠孝の原理) through ancestral rituals.[1] This means that the subjects are loyal to the emperor as he shows filial piety to the preceding emperors and ancestral gods through rituals, and at the same time, the history of the ancestors’ loyalty to the preceding emperors confirms the present meaning of filial piety. Furthermore, Aizawa regards Japan as a divine country (shinshū 神国) and assumed the rule of all nations by the emperor was eternal and unchanging. While praising Japan as a divine country, he also called it the ‘Land of the Center (chūgoku 中国)’,[2] based on the idea of ‘Little China (shōchūka 小中華)’ and regards the ‘barbarians of the West (seikō no ban’i 西荒の蛮夷)’ who were advancing into the world as a particular threat to kokutai.[3]
On the other hand, Yoshida initially recognises that kokutai is the emperor military subjugation of others and argues that it was the duty of the shogun to assist the emperor to govern by defeating foreign enemies. In addition, based on the national consciousness, he criticises the situation that shoguns and feudal lords were only defending their strongholds and argued that the people should cooperate to protect the nation. However, when Japan was overwhelmed by the dominant military power of the United States, which made it difficult for Japan to maintain its isolationist system, Yoshida shifted his theory of kokutai. He acknowledges that each country has an individual kokutai (national polity) and advocates that superior ‘righteousness of imperial ruler and ruled (皇朝君臣の義)’ to all nations was Japanese unique fundamental principle, kokutai.[4]
Secondly, the difference between the two theories of kokutai can also be traced in their attitudes toward the shogunate. Aizawa’s theory of kokutai was an ideology built on the premise of the Tokugawa feudal system in order for the regime to reorganise its order in response to internal and external crises. In contrast, Yoshida sees the emperor as the permanent sovereign and prioritises the role of all people in Japan as imperial subjects. He argues that people are to devote themselves to the emperor while also serving their feudal lord, and their loyalty to the feudal lord means to promote him to be faithful to the emperor.[5]
The difference between the two theories of statehood can be attributed to the threat of foreign powers, which became increasingly realistic at the end of the Edo period. Aizawa formulates kokutai theory based on the ‘theory of social hierarchy (taigi meibum ron 大義名分論)’, which derives from Neo-Confucianism, with the assumption of governance by the shogunate. However, Yoshida’s theory of kokutai, which he advocated after witnessing the powerful military power of the United States and experiencing a shake in the legitimacy of the shogunate, contained a stronger element of ‘theory of delegation of power (taisei inin ron 大政委任論)’ of National Learning (kokugaku 国学), which assumes that the authority of the shogunate originates from itself but is merely delegated by the emperor. Thus, in comparison to Aizawa, his vision of the national body proved to be an advantageous theory for building a political system with the emperor at the centre, as it undermined the legitimacy of the shogunate’s rule of Japan.
In conclusion, while both the national state proposed by Aizawa and Yoshida are built on the premise of loyalty to the emperor and share some elements of Neo-Confucianist ‘theory of social hierarchy’, they differ in their interpretation of kokutai and other countries, as well as in their attitudes towards the Tokugawa regime. The worsening of Tokugawa Japan’s domestic and foreign situation and the destabilisation of the political order resulted in the transition in the theory of kokutai from Aizawa to Yoshida.
Bibliography
Anderson, Emily (ed.), Belief and Practice in Imperial Japan and Colonial Korea (London, 2017).
Yoshida, Toshizumi 吉田俊純, Mitogaku No Kenkyū: Meiji-ishin-shi No Saikentō 水戸学の研究—明治維新史の再検討 (Tokyo, 2016).
Yamaguchi-ken Kyōikukai 山口県教育会 (ed.), Yoshida Shōin Zenshū Dai 2 Kan 吉田松陰全集第2巻 (Tokyo, 1934).
Yamaguchi-ken Kyōikukai 山口県教育会 (ed.), Yoshida Shōin Zenshū Dai 3 Kan 吉田松陰全集第3巻 (Tokyo, 1939).
Imai, Usaburo 今井宇三郎, Seya, Yoshihiko 瀬谷義彦, Bitō, Masahide 尾藤正英 (eds.), Nihon Shisō Shi Taikei 53: Mitogaku 日本思想史体系53 水戸学 (Tokyo, 1973).
Yoshida, Tsunekichi 吉田常吉 et al. (eds.), Nihon Shisō Shi Taikei 54: Yoshida Shōin 日本思想史体系54 吉田松陰(Tokyo, 1978).
[1] Usaburo Imai, Yoshihiko Seya and Masahide Bitō (eds.), Nihon Shisō Shi Taikei 53: Mitogaku (Tokyo, 1973), pp. 51–53.
[2] Ibid., p. 65.
[3] Ibid., p. 50.
[4] Yamaguchi-ken Kyōikukai (ed.), Yoshida Shōin Zenshū Dai 2 Kan (Tokyo, 1934), p.479–480.
[5] Yamaguchi-ken Kyōikukai (ed.), Yoshida Shōin Zenshū Dai 2 Kan (Tokyo, 1939), p. 566.