The ‘Hesitant’ Body in the Ritual Space of the Nation State
A New Look at the Lese Majesty Incident of Uchimura Kanzo
2004 Volume 2004 Issue 17 Pages 1-12
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2004 Volume 2004 Issue 17 Pages 1-12
In 1891, Uchimura Kanzo was accused of lese majesty when he did not bow to the Imperial Rescript on Education in a school ceremony. This event has been taken to epitomize religious opposition to the authoritarian Japanese state and has occupied a special place in discussions of the issue of ‘religion and state’ in Japan. What has been overlooked is the fact that Uchimura persisted in describing his behavior in the ceremony as a ‘hesitation’ rather than a ‘determined refusal’. The present thesis demonstrates that this failure to note the ‘hesitant’ body in the ritual space—the sociological dimension of the event—was inherent in the traditional framework of ‘religion and state’, and proposes a new, sociological interpretation of the event.
