Overcoming Modernity and Japanese Intellectuals' Reflections on Pre-Modern Past

This project is a study of modern Japanese intellectual discourse on the question of
modernity in the mid-twentieth century. Through the nineteenth and twentieth
centuires, modernity has often been associated with “the West,” and the dominant
intellectual discourses narrated the civilizational development as an emanation of
modernity from the West as a center to the periphery of “non-West.” Under these
conditions, modern Japanese intellectuals struggled to determine their cultural identities
and navigate social changes. While some intellectuals were proud of the exceptionally
successful modernization of Japanese society in comparison with other non-Western
countries, some found the key foundation of Japanese culture and social development in
such a non-Western tradition. As an extension of such a discussion of Japan’s
modernity, an interesting attempt to “overcome modernity” emerged within Japanese
intellectual discourses in the context of the economic crisis and war of the 1930s and
1940s. Importantly, this attempt featured the unique world-historical status of Japan as
a leading non-Western country and highlighted the significance of the historical past
prior to the modern period (both in Japan and Europe).
This project focuses on leading intellectuals who examined the significance of the premodern past to produce discourses calling for overcoming modernity: Japanese writer
Shimazaki Tōson (1872-1943), Japanese historians Ōrui Noburu (1884-1975) and Suzuki
Shigetaka (1907-1988). Although they belonged to different intellectual circles, they
shared a common interest in critically examining Western modernity and found
important value in the pre-modern past. Shimazaki and Suzuki focused on the Middle
Ages in Europe and Japan and attempted to articulate the unignorable value of those
periods. Ōrui studied the Renaissance in Japan and Europe and emphasized its value,
which could not be included in the achievement of modernity. Through this examination,
my project contributes to articulating the logic of Japanese intellectuals for overcoming
modernity and its transnational range of perspectives. As a result, this study will expand
the perspective of modern Japanese and global intellectual history.