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NISHIDA Shoichi Assistant Professor Modern Japanese History, History of Modern Japanese Political Thought, History of Modern Japanese Religious Thought |
Achievements
⇒ TOHOKU UNIVERSITY Researchers
Reading the Thought and Practice of Japan’s “Kokutai” Advocates through Historical Sources
My research focuses on the history of political and religious thought in modern Japan. I have examined the thought and activities of figures who stood at the intersection of state and religion, politics and education—above all the constitutional scholar Kakehi Katsuhiko, who theorized the “kokutai” (national polity) under the Meiji Constitution, as well as Home Ministry bureaucrat-politicians such as Mizuno Rentarō and Moriya Eifu, and Katō Kanji, a leading proponent of agrarianism (nōhonshugi)—drawing not only on their published writings but also on historical sources such as diaries, letters, and lecture records. More recently, I have extended my interests to the development of kokutai theory in colonial Taiwan and Korea and in Manchuria, its influence on postwar Japan, and wartime “training” (rensei) and bodily practice. At CNEAS, I plan to survey and organize modern historical materials remaining in the Tohoku region, including sources related to Moriya Eifu, a native of Furukawa in Miyagi Prefecture, and to explore the history of emigration from Tohoku to Manchuria, in which Katō Kanji was involved.
The “The “Chikai no Mihashira” (Pillar of the Oath), a monument Kakehi Katsuhiko campaigned to have built. Mt. Kanpū, Oga, Akita Prefecture.
Temple bell donated by Moriya Eifu, Chōshōin Temple (Ōsaki City, Miyagi Prefecture)
Principal areas of interest
- Kakehi Katsuhiko’s Kokutai Theory: Its Development across the Prewar and Postwar Periods and Its Influence on Japan and Its Colonies
- Thought and Activities of Home Ministry Bureaucrat-Politicians such as Mizuno Rentarō and Moriya Eifu
- Intellectual History of Religion, Self-Cultivation, and Wartime “Training” (Rensei) in Modern Japan