From the gods of heavens: kokutai, myth and law in Japanese history, 1825-1947 (original) (raw)

In Japanese culture, the concept of kokutai is particularly interesting, being one of the most difficult to translate and properly contextualize. The term derives from Chinese[2], and is composed by two terms: koku (nation, country) and tai (body, structure). Literally, it refers to the "national structure"[3] of Japan, although it would be more appropriate to translate it as "national essence"[4]. Kokutai is indeed a term denoting more of a spiritual notion than a form of political governance, and constitutes the focus of a political and ideological narrative, involving State, people and emperor (tennō), that cannot be actually understood if not having regard to its progressive evolutions. In modern literature, the idea of kokutai has not been exhaustively explored, if not according to an historical perspective, with special reference the authoritarian and militarist regime, the Pacific War and the U.S. occupation, like in the cases of the volumes of Dower[5] and Takemae[6]. Nevertheless, the concept is a comprehensive one, and involves a plurality of philosophical and political aspects that deserve a deeper and multidisciplinary analysis. Brownlee[7] has indeed elaborated an overview of the various evolutionary stages of the concept that provided to be effective to frame the discourse from a political point of view. However, given its relevant implications on the Japanese constitutional system, an analysis that is necessary to carry out refers to the relationship between kokutai and the legal order. I have already partially provided an overview of this issue[8], focusing on the different aspects of this peculiar relationship and providing an explanation about the ways in which the kokutai interact with the constitutional model Japan has adopted since the Meiji Restoration. In this article, I will focus on a complementary albeit different profile of a comprehensive legal analysis of the Japanese kokutai, that is to say delineate and classify four phases in which kokutai, law and myth engage into a mutual interexchange with different results. In this