CONCEPT OF KOKUTAI AS NATIONAL ESSENCE IN THE FOUNDATION OF JAPAN'S IMPERIAL SUBJECTNESS IN LATE XIX- FIRST HALF OF XX CENTURY

Olga Yazovskaya
Assoc .Prof. Dr., Ural Federal University named after the first President of Russia B. N. Yeltsin, Chelyabinsk State University, Russian Federation, yazolga@gmail.com

Abstract

In this research, I examine the concept of kokutai as a mode of state mythology that functions as an ideological basis of imperial subjectness of modernization period Japan. To aid the research, I analyze two of the most important sources of kokutai: Imperial Rescript on Education (1890) and "Kokutai no Hongi" (Cardinal Principles of the National Essence of Japan) Ministry of Education pamphlet (1937); beginnings of its creation in the works of School of National Disciplines and the Mito School are also studied. The research shows that the concept of kokutai provides an argument for Japanese nation's exceptional and supreme status, as well as Japanese emperor, divine heritage as a father of the nation, through ancient Japanese mythology.

Keywords: concept of kokutai, empireness, state ideology, modernization, Japan