In this paper, I explore various aspects of the geographical concept of homeland and the case of some homeland movements in Wakayama city in the early days of the Showa era.
Generally, homeland is considered to be an important geographical concept because it is deeply related to forming individual and national identities. More precisely, I regard a homeland not only as the center of one's identity, but also as the other place upon which one's ideals or desires are projected. That is, one can realize a homeland in another place. To consider this ambivalent geographical concept, I focus attention on individual and social relationships, imaginary and material factors, and some geographical points of view: moving, positionalities, spatial scales, and so on.
In 1931, Iba Takeshi, who advocated promoting the Homeland Art Movement, founded a magazine, "The Nanki Art", in Wakayama city. Nanki, another name for Kishu, is the old name for the geographical region covering Wakayama city and the areas to its south. He said that his lovely homeland of Nanki was suffering severely low cultural activity, despite the fact that Nanki had flourished culturally during the old Edo period. This was because most cultural activities had become excessively concentrated in Tokyo in modern Japan. Influenced by discussions of Romain Rolland's "The People's Theatre", Iba dreamed of his homeland of Nanki becoming a center of culture that could produce better works and a happier life than Tokyo. Thus, he published an enlightening magazine to stimulate a renaissance in his homeland, including many high cultural works created by famous writers and painters. Ironically, he had been a Tokyo dweller, and Nanki had not been his birthplace. When moving to Wakayama city from Tokyo, however, he felt that Nanki was his homeland. Thus, the homeland of Nanki for Iba was not his birthplace but an other place. Therefore, this homeland concept had the ambivalent nature, that was to say, he regarded it as a culturally inferior place, yet idealized it as a region that had the potential for new creations.
After this magazine was discontinued in 1934, some of its contributors and local intellectuals organized a cultural group called "The 10th Day Club". This group hoped to boost Wakayama city's cultural life and improve its comfort level. The group's key person was Kitamura Susumu, who had contributed some writings to "The Nanki Art" and, in 1933, had returned from Tokyo to his birthplace of Wakayama city because he had felt a fondness for his homeland. He also felt that there was a possibility of leading a humanistic life, as opposed to the mechanical lifestyle of Tokyo. However, on his return, he criticized Wakayama as a confused and dirty city. He wanted to emphasize the city's attractions for tourists and boost the City Beautiful Movement. At first, the concept of homeland for him had been almost the same as Iba's, but, because his practices had a closer relationship to a real homeland, he gradually noticed his homeland's negative aspects. Furthermore, he criticized Wakayama people because he felt that they were too egotistical and needed to possess a public spirit from his city dweller's point of view.
To compensate for his disillusionment, he gradually focused on his homeland's great history, and paid attention to the discussions of the Homeland Education Movement, which was concerned with nourishing the public spirit, the love for one's homeland, and the national soul. Because of these changes, The 10th Day Club's activities eventually ceased. The Research Institute of Kishu Culture was established in Wakayama city in 1936, and was joined by several intellectuals involved with participants of the Homeland Art Movement and many local teachers.
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