Lost Identity of Kominkan：A Reconsideration of the Case of the Mihashi Kominkan

Abstract

This paper seeks to elucidate the social context that brought on the refusal of the Mihashi Kominkan to publish a haiku poem on Article 9 as well as to examine the meaning of the new movement to revitalize Kominkan in Japan. In doing so, I apply the concept of “identity of places” to the historical research of local Kominkan and go on to analyze the history of Kominkan in Omiya and Saitama cities. After describing the paper’s purpose and research methodology, I survey the formation of Omiya City, which became Omiya Ward after its merger with two other cities in 2001 to become Saitama City, from the Meiji period and the history of Kominkan in Omiya after World War II and Saitama City after its 2001 formation. Next, I analyze the formation, loss, and reconstruction of “Kominkan identity” in Omiya and Saitama City, and draw conclusions from this analysis.

At present, residents and Kominkan staff who seek to reconstruct the identity of Kominkan in Saitama City are undertaking study sessions to that end. What is significant about this process of “reconstruction” —what Edward Relph observes as “authentically created places”—is that it is emerging as “civic learning” that seeks to redraw the “borders of the political order” with regards to education. This process should not be understood as just as a dispute involving the identity of Kominkan, but instead should be perceived as an exercise to redefine democracy in Saitama City.