Table Of ContentTōhoku
Regional Spaces, Cultures and
Identities of East Asia
Series Editor
Andrew Cobbing
Volume 2
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/rcsi
Tōhoku
Japan’s Constructed Outland
By
Hidemichi Kawanishi
Translated by
Nanyan Guo and Raquel Hill
LEIDEN | BOSTON
Cover illustration: Stained Glass of Hirosaki Church. Photo by Nanyan Guo.
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issn 2213-5359
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Contents
Translator’s Foreword ix
Author’s Preface xi
List of Illustrations, Photos, Maps and Tables xvi
Series Editor’s Introduction xviii
Note to the Reader xxi
Introduction—Defining Tōhoku 1
1 Tōhoku in the Spotlight 1
2 Situating Tōhoku in World History 2
3 A Vast Space 3
4 “Backward Tōhoku” 6
5 Toward a Tōhoku Discourse 7
6 Where is Tōhoku? 8
1 Between Outland and Arcadia: 1780s–1880s 15
1 Travelers’ Accounts of Tōhoku 15
1.1 The Perception of Tōhoku in Tōyū zakki 15
1.2 The Concept of Nation in Tōyūki 17
1.3 The Emergence of Tōhoku in Historical Documents 18
1.4 The Significance of the Boshin Civil War 20
1.5 “Japan’s Wealth is in Ōu” 23
1.6 Tōhoku Through Foreign Eyes 24
2 Oppressed Tōhoku 26
2.1 Iwakura Tomomi’s Perception of Tōhoku 26
2.2 Tōhoku as Seen by the Imperial Entourage 29
2.3 Tōhoku in the News 32
2.4 Comparisons with Taiwan 34
2.5 Unequal Development 36
2 A Dirt-Cheap Wasteland: 1870s–1880s 39
1 A Self-Portrait of Tōhoku 39
1.1 “Japan” and “Country” 39
1.2 An Ezo Consciousness and a Sense of Backwardness 41
1.3 An All-Consuming Sense of Mission 43
1.4 Support for the Freedom and People’s Rights Movement 45
2 The Inner Awareness of Tōhoku People 47
2.1 Self-Awareness vs. Inner Awareness 47
vi contents
2.2 Akita Prefecture and the Korean Peninsula 49
2.3 The Aspirations of the Akita Nippō 52
2.4 No Complex 55
3 A Burning Sense of Tōhoku Spirit: 1880s–1890s 58
1 Tōhoku vs. Seinan (The Southwest) 58
1.1 The Fighting Spirit of Tōhoku’s Freedom and People’s Rights
Movement 58
1.2 The Argument for Establishing a Tōhoku Political Party 60
1.3 The Dream to Unify the Thirteen Regions of Tōhoku 63
1.4 Young Activists in the Freedom and People’s Rights Movement 65
2 “Insensitive” People 66
2.1 The Insensitive Incident 66
2.2 The Grand Alliance Movement and the Hinomaru 68
2.3 The Anti-Land Price Adjustment Movement 71
2.4 Sweet Potatoes and Peanuts 72
2.5 Structural Reform of the Liberal Party 73
2.6 History Repeats 74
4 Constructing Tōhoku: 1890s–1900s 76
1 Youth Taking a Stand 76
1.1 Eisai Shinshi and Gakuyū Tsūshin 76
1.2 The Case Made by Tōhoku Kenji 79
1.3 Youth Nationalism 81
2 The Evolution of Tōhoku Discourse 85
2.1 The Magazine Aizu 85
2.2 Nagata Kenjirō’s Tōhokuron 86
2.3 Kayahara Rentarō’s Tōhoku Taiseiron 89
2.4 Itō Taiji’s Tōhoku Shinsakuron 92
2.5 Tamari Kizō’s Tōhoku Shinkōsaku 93
2.6 Hangai Seiju’s Shōrai no Tōhoku 95
5 Development and Discrimination: 1890s–1910s 99
1 The Transportation Revolution 99
1.1 Narita Tetsushirō’s Mutsuwan no Shōrai 99
1.2 Opposition to Extending the Railroad Line 101
1.3 The Elusive Noiwagoe Railroad 105
1.4 The Gan’etsu Railroad and Ura Nihon 107
1.5 Tōhoku and Ura Nihon 108
Contents vii
2 Discomforting Images 109
2.1 Embarrassing Recollections 109
2.2 The Impact of the Sanriku Tsunami 112
2.3 A History of Famines 115
6 Tōhoku Nationalism: 1880s–1900s 124
1 Tōhoku Nationalists 124
1.1 Kuga Katsunan, Tōhoku, and Regionalism 124
1.2 “Japanese Citizens” of the Future 128
1.3 Look to Scotland! 129
2 Tōhoku and East Asia 130
2.1 Within Asia 130
2.2 The Man Who Saw the Periphery 131
2.3 The Structure of Hinryokō no ki 134
2.4 The Scope of Chishima Tanken 135
2.5 The 8th Infantry Division and the Snow March Disaster 137
2.6 A Human Experiment 138
2.7 Preparing to Fight Russia 141
Conclusion—The Future of Tōhoku Discourse: 1900s–1910s 143
1 Unknown Tōhoku 143
2 An Abstract Understanding of Tōhoku 145
3 Tōhoku in the 1910s 148
4 Japan as Nation-State and Tōhoku 151
5 Yanagita Kunio’s Perspective 152
6 Toward a New World and a New History 153
Postscript to the Japanese Edition 156
Bibliography 159
Index 168
Translator’s Foreword
Nanyan Guo
As a long-term resident of Japan, I have often read about and seen firsthand the
complex feelings that people from the Tōhoku region have about their unique
way of speaking. An individual’s attitude towards their own accent is often a
reflection of how they see their position in society.
For many years, all I knew about Tōhoku came from images from a Sunday
night television serial titled Inochi (Life), screened by NHK in 1986. The city
of Hirosaki, in Aomori Prefecture, was one of the drama’s main settings, and
the part that resonated with me the most was how the heroine’s husband suc-
ceeded in growing a new variety of apple in Aomori’s natural landscape. At the
time I hoped that I would one day have the opportunity to taste one of those
apples; my dream came to fruition fifteen years later.
I was given several opportunities to visit the city between 2001 and 2007.
While there my research focused on modern writers who call the Tsugaru
region (the western part of Aomori Prefecture) home. I was particularly
interested in how these writers described their hometowns in contrast to the
“ center.” A common characteristic appeared to be that they all, to some degree
or another, harbored a sense of “inferiority,” in terms of their accent, geographi-
cal location, and economic development. But interestingly, their literary works
also conveyed a strong sense of identity that was inexorably linked to Aomori’s
history and cultural achievements.
During my stays in Hirosaki, I attended performances of the Tsugaru
shamisen and folk song recitals, and made frequent visits to Hirosaki Castle
and other nearby temples. The richly detailed beauty of Tsugaru lacquerware,
Hirosaki Park, and Mt. Iwaki, which is also referred to as Tsugaru-Fuji from its
shape, all left a deep impression on me. And I finally got to taste those apples,
which were even more delicious than I had imagined all those years ago.
Contrary to popular belief, the famous Fuji apple was developed in the town of
Fujisaki in the Tsugaru region, and thus the name “Fuji” comes from Fujisaki,
not Mt. Fuji. The glorious cherry, apple, and peach blossoms in the spring more
than made up for the long cold winters, and the summers were crisp and com-
fortable, so different to the steamy jungle of Tokyo. The Tsugaru region has
produced many brilliant writers, including Kasai Zenzō (1887–1928), Dazai
Osamu (1909–1948), Terayama Shūji (1935–1983), and Osabe Hideo (b. 1934).
I discovered that the region has so much to offer in terms of both culture and
