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Popular realms of memory in Japan: the case of Sakamoto Ryōma

Popular realms of memory in Japan: the case of Sakamoto Ryōma AbstractSakamoto Ryōma is said to have united the fiefs of Satsuma and Chōshūin their attempt to overthrow the Tokugawa shogunate, which eventuallyled to the Meiji Restoration. He is one of the most popular historical figures incontemporary Japan. However, while the remembrance and commemoration ofthe darkest decades from the 1930s to the 1940s in Japanese history have beenresearched extensively in the West, cases such as Sakamoto have been mostlyneglected. This paper examines Sakamoto’s current popularity and puts it intothe context of Pierre Nora’s concept of “realms of memory.” Nora’s conceptdescribes how national identity draws upon various memories and transformsthem into interconnected points of reference. The analysis starts by scrutinizingon the many historical novels that have been written about Sakamoto as wellas the historical TV drama Ryōma-den, produced and aired by public broadcasterNHK in 2010. Situating Sakamoto’s case in the overall picture of Japanese“realms of memory” reveals the political dimensions of memorizing him. Sakamotohas been cherished by conservatives and left-wing students alike. Thepaper concludes that Sakamoto and other heroes such as Saigō Takamorishould be included into Western research on collective historical memory inJapan because they shed light on the complex entanglement of memory andpolitics in Japan. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Contemporary Japan de Gruyter

Popular realms of memory in Japan: the case of Sakamoto Ryōma

Tagsold, Christian
Contemporary Japan , Volume 25 (1): 19 – Mar 1, 2013
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Publisher
de Gruyter
Copyright
© 2013 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin Boston
ISSN
1869-2737
eISSN
1869-2737
DOI
10.1515/cj-2013-0003
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

AbstractSakamoto Ryōma is said to have united the fiefs of Satsuma and Chōshūin their attempt to overthrow the Tokugawa shogunate, which eventuallyled to the Meiji Restoration. He is one of the most popular historical figures incontemporary Japan. However, while the remembrance and commemoration ofthe darkest decades from the 1930s to the 1940s in Japanese history have beenresearched extensively in the West, cases such as Sakamoto have been mostlyneglected. This paper examines Sakamoto’s current popularity and puts it intothe context of Pierre Nora’s concept of “realms of memory.” Nora’s conceptdescribes how national identity draws upon various memories and transformsthem into interconnected points of reference. The analysis starts by scrutinizingon the many historical novels that have been written about Sakamoto as wellas the historical TV drama Ryōma-den, produced and aired by public broadcasterNHK in 2010. Situating Sakamoto’s case in the overall picture of Japanese“realms of memory” reveals the political dimensions of memorizing him. Sakamotohas been cherished by conservatives and left-wing students alike. Thepaper concludes that Sakamoto and other heroes such as Saigō Takamorishould be included into Western research on collective historical memory inJapan because they shed light on the complex entanglement of memory andpolitics in Japan.

Journal

Contemporary Japan – de Gruyter

Published: Mar 1, 2013

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