Symbols of nationalism and Nihonjinron

Abstract

In 1947 Kiku to Katana, the Japanese translation of The Chrysanthemum and the Sword by Ruth Benedict (1946), was published in Japan. It became an instant bestseller, and has been on the shelves of bookstores in Japan ever since. By now the Japanese version has seen eight separate editions, and has been reprinted at least 144 times. It is quite proper to say that the postwar Nihonjinron-the search for Japan’s identity, and cultural uniqueness-was inaugurated by Benedict, and has increasingly enraptured the Japanese ever since. While there are many reasons for this boom, I would like to suggest one of them in this chapter, namely that the use of major symbols of national identity and pride was rendered problematic by the Second World War, and hence Nihonjinron moved into this relative ‘symbolic vacuum’.

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