<論文>「手巾」と「武士道」ブーム : 〈擬-普遍〉主義的主体化のメカニズム

Abstract

In this paper I intend to reconsider the boom of bushido (spirit of warrior) in modern Japanese society by analyzing the short story "Hankechi" written by Akutagawa Ryunosuke (1892-1927) in 1916. In modern Japan, the bushido boom began around the end of the nineteenth century. Since the Sino-Japanese War (1894-5) bushido became popular in Japanese discourse. Of course bushi (warrior) as a social class had been abolished before this era. However, it was this boom that made the moral of bushi popular to people from all walks of life. The symbolic work of this boom was Bushido: The Soul of Japan written by Nitobe Inazo (1862-1933) in 1899. It was first published in the United States in 1899, and translated into Japanese in 1908. Nitobe was a famous thinker and educator who had a strong influence on the bushido boom. He had an ambition to be "a bridge between the East and the West". In his book, Nitobe tried to explain bushido as a spirit of Japanese society. He emphasized that bushido was a civilized and refined moral which could be equal to Western ethics. In order to reconsider the bushido boom, I would like to take up one story "Hankechi (Handkerchief)" written by Akutagawa. In the story Akutagawa caricatured Nitobe's ideas of bushido cynically. Even though it is only a short story, it succeeds in grasping the essence of the problem in civilization process of Japan, which was reflected well in the bushido boom. Therefore, it seems reasonable to examine this story as a clue to understand the aporia of the modernization and civilization process of Japan. Especially, I will focus on the "uneasiness" that came over the main character in the last scene of this story. I shall explain why he felt "uneasy" and how that kind of feeling was connected to the identities of intellectuals in modern Japanese society. For this purpose, I would like to use Louis Althusser's theory. Especially I pay attention to his theory about subjectivization. I shall discuss the difficulties embedded in the process in which modern Japanese intellectuals became subjects as represented by Nitobe Inazo's case.