UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations
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UCLA UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Translational Moments: Citizenship in Meiji Japan Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/275806xg Author Branstetter, John G. Publication Date 2017 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Translational Moments: Citizenship in Meiji Japan A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science by John Gavin Branstetter 2017 ©Copyright John Gavin Branstetter 2017 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Translational Moments: Citizenship in Meiji Japan by John Gavin Branstetter Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science University of California, Los Angeles, 2017 Professor Anthony R. Pagden, Chair I argue that translational thinking is a vital mode of political thinking which harbors a basic democratic potential. I theorize translations as metaphorical relations which do not referentially link terms. Rather, I contend that translation creates an indeterminate relationship which allows words and images to appear where they are not supposed to. In this way, translation verifies the contingency of social order and reaffirms the axiom of equality. I argue that translation is therefore a political practice which creates moments of radical democratic potential. I demonstrate this by examining four historical episodes, or what I call “translational moments,” in the intense period of cultural and political change that followed Japan’s mid-19th century Meiji Restoration. Focusing on the translation of the word “citizen,” I examine how translation broke down or reinforced Tokugawa worldviews and assess the historical consequences of these disruptions. Moments one and two concretize my theoretical claims by ii focusing on the intertextual translation of the words “citizen” and citoyen from English and French into Japanese for the first time. I examine Fukuzawa Yukichi’s translation language for “citizen” in Conditions in the West, and Nakae Chōmin’s translation of citoyen in Rousseau’s Social Contract. Moments three and four demonstrate the expansiveness of translation as a poetic activity by examining the translation of the language of citizenship into actual social practice. I first look at the spread of rhetoric in the debating associations of the Freedom and Popular Rights Movement to understand the ways in which they transformed standards of valid public speech. Finally, I explore the appearance of women in the public sphere through Kishida Toshiko’s speeches and the growth of women’s employment in silk and cotton mills. I show how the Confucian discourse of the family constrained the democratic potential of their appearances in public. iii The dissertation of John Gavin Branstetter is approved. Joshua Foa Dienstag William Marotti Davide Panagia Anthony R. Pagden, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2017 iv TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF IMAGES AND TABLES .................................................................................. vii IMAGES ........................................................................................................................... vii NOTES ON TRANSLATION and GLOSSARY OF JAPANESE TERMS .................... vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................. xiv VITA ................................................................................................................................ xvi Introduction| Translational Moments .................................................................................. 1 Sakura Sōgorō and the Politics of Appearance ........................................................... 1 Translation, Politics, and the History of the Meiji State ........................................... 15 Outline of the Dissertation ........................................................................................ 40 Overture| The Political Moment of Translational Political Theory .................................. 46 Translational Political Theory ................................................................................... 52 Translation-Metaphor and Mimesis .......................................................................... 64 Translation and Poesis .............................................................................................. 76 Translation and Democratic Potentiality .................................................................. 83 The Indeterminacy of The Political Moment ............................................................ 88 Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 92 Translational Moments| One ............................................................................................. 94 Fukuzawa Yukichi and the Individualistic Citizen ....................................................... 95 Japanese Readers and Conditions in the West .......................................................... 98 Fukuzawa’s Neologism and the Metaphor of the City ........................................... 106 Words for Equality and Words for Duty ................................................................. 109 Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 138 Translational Moments| Two .......................................................................................... 141 Nakae Chōmin and the Community of Virtue ............................................................ 142 Minyaku yakkai and its Standards of Judgment ...................................................... 146 Chōmin’s Translation Words .................................................................................. 155 Shūjin and the Politics of Community .................................................................... 162 The Tradition of Jin ................................................................................................ 170 Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 183 Translational Moments| Three ........................................................................................ 187 The Intelligible Citizen ............................................................................................... 188 Individuals, Truth, and Politics ............................................................................... 191 Speech, Rhetoric, and the Emergence of Subjects .................................................. 207 Legitimate Utterances ............................................................................................. 224 The Constitutional Contradiction ............................................................................ 229 Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 232 Translational Moments| Four .......................................................................................... 235 The Appearance of Women and the Transformation of the Confucian Family ......... 236 Confucianism and Women in Japan ....................................................................... 239 Nationality, Citizenship, and Koseki ....................................................................... 248 v Kishida Toshiko and the Translational Moment ..................................................... 256 Filial Piety and Confucian Citizenship ................................................................... 271 Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 282 Conclusion| Translating the World ................................................................................. 287 Sōgoro’s Return ...................................................................................................... 287 Meiji Moments ........................................................................................................ 292 The Politics of Translation-Metaphor ..................................................................... 298 Final Reflections ..................................................................................................... 303 Bibliography ................................................................................................................... 306 vi LIST OF IMAGES AND TABLES IMAGES Image 1: Portrait of Loie Fuller by Frederick Glasier ...................................................... 70 Image 2: Seiyō jijō's shimin .............................................................................................. 94 Image 3: Book 1, Chapter 7 of Minyaku Yakkai in kanbun. ........................................... 141 Image 4: The Itsukaichi draft ......................................................................................... 187 Image 5: Kishida Toshiko appearing in public. .............................................................. 235 TABLES Table 1: Translations of “citizen” in Seiyō jijō ............................................................... 110 Table 2: Translations of citoyen in Minyaku yakkai ....................................................... 156 NOTES ON TRANSLATION and GLOSSARY OF JAPANESE TERMS For the sake of consistency, I have listed many terms