John Person

SUNY: University at Albany, East Asian Studies, Faculty Member

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Papers by John Person

Palm Healing and the Japanese Right: Tanasue no Michi and the Body of the Imperial Japanese Subject

Japanese Religions, 2021

This paper will examine nationalist conceptions of body and healing in the early Showa era, focus... more This paper will examine nationalist conceptions of body and healing in the early Showa era, focusing primarily on a branch of Reiki known as tanasue no michi ("the way of fingertips") and tenohira ryōji ("palm healing"). Tenohira ryōji was developed by Eguchi Toshihiro (1873-1946) and popularized as tanasue no michi by his more famous student Mitsui Kōshi (1883-1953), best known for founding the infamous nationalist organization Genri Nippon Society that attacked Marxist and leftist intellectuals in the 1930s and 1940s. Contemporaneous with other conceptions of the body and practices promoting health, tanasue no michi sought to bridge the emerging discourse of national health with emperorist ideology. Mitsui framed tanasue no michi as a form of worship that would strengthen familial and national bonds that complemented his theory of poetry as quintessential ethnic expression. Tanasue no michi reflected the cosmopolitan orientation of the early Showa right, as Mitsui sought to explain tanasue no michi in the context of the international discourse of science, particularly ray theories, and vitalist philosophies from Europe and the United States. This paper argues that right-wing conceptions of healing were products of modern epistemologies of science, health, and nation.

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The Showa Restoration movement in transwar perspective: the case of Kageyama Masaharu, 1910-1979

Japan Forum, 2020

This article explores the career of ethno-nationalist leader Kageyama Masaharu, who was active du... more This article explores the career of ethno-nationalist leader Kageyama Masaharu, who was active during the greater part of the Showa era. It argues that though the notion of 'Showa Restoration' is typically understood in terms of the bloody coup d' etat attempts of the prewar era, the postwar career of its participants necessitates a broader understanding of the term. Kageyama is best known as a conspirator in the failed terrorist attack known as the Shimpeitai Incident of 1933, but he also played a major role in nationalist politics in the postwar era. His activities ranged from lobbying for the recuperation and repair of physical and temporal institutions related to the imperial house, such as rituals at Ise Shrine and National Establishment Day, to the nurturing of young ethno-nationalists at his Great East Institute. The ideas and platforms of Showa Restorationists like Kageyama survived the US Occupation and the Cold War era in the form of ethno-nationalist (minzokuha) activists and lobbyists.

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Japanese Right-Wing Discourse in International Context: Minoda Muneki's Interwar Writings on Class and Nation

Journal of the History of Ideas, 2018

It is often taken for granted that ultranationalist ideologues of interwar Japan were anti-wester... more It is often taken for granted that ultranationalist ideologues of interwar Japan were anti-western, uncritical mouthpieces of state ideology. This article considers the case of Minoda Muneki (1894-1946) who led the purge of liberals and Marxists from imperial universities. In articulating his theory of nationalism and critique of Marxism, Minoda drew upon a global discourse of social theory. Furthermore, his rise to power was a product of a short-lived convergence of interests between his organization and government figures. I argue for a global historical approach to right-wing ideology that accounts for the relation between nationalist discourse and political power.

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