著者

STARRS Roy

出版者

International Research Center for Japanese Studies

雑誌

Nichibunken Japan review : Jourmal of the International Research Center for Japanese Studies

巻号頁・発行日

vol.18, pp.181-213, 2006-01-01

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During the fourteen years that Lafcadio Hearn alias Koizumi Yakumolived in Japan (Meiji 23-37, 1890-1904), his attitude toward nationalismunderwent a profound change. Before his arrival in Japan the only kindof nationalism evinced in his writings was in the gentle tradition of theold romantic Herderian school, a purely cultural nationalism?morespecifically, a nostalgic attachment to “dying” folk cultures such as those ofthe American and Caribbean Creoles. But his encounter with Meiji Japanturned him into an aggressive modern state nationalist, to the extent eventhat he adopted the Japanese cause against China and Russia. How canwe account for this dramatic transformation? On the one hand, it seemsobvious that the atmosphere of rising nationalism in late Meiji Japan hada profound impact on Hearn. But I would also argue that Hearn’s pre-Japan immersion in the Herderian struggle to save or at least memorialize“dying cultures” laid the ground for his “conversion” to an aggressive formof modern state nationalism vis-?-vis Japan, which at that time, like theCreole nations writ large, seemed threatened with cultural extinction.