Sho Konishi, Anarchist Modernity: Cooperatism
and Japanese-Russian Intellectual Relations in ModernJapan. Harvard East Asian Monographs #356. 2013.
The back-cover describes
the book: “Mid-nineteenth century Russian radicals who witnessed the Meiji
Restoration saw it as the most sweeping revolution in recent history and the
impetus for future global progress. Acting outside imperial encounters, they
initiated underground transnational networks withJapan. Prominent intellectuals and
cultural figures …… pursued these unofficial relationships through
correspondence, travel, and networking, despite diplomatic and military
conflicts between their respective nations.” It “uncovers a major current in
Japanese intellectual and cultural life between 1860 and 1930 that might be
described as ‘cooperatist anarchist modernity’—a commitment to realizing a
modern society through mutual aid and voluntary activity, without the
intervention of state governance. These efforts later crystallized into such
movements as the Nonwar Movement, Esperantism, and the popularization of the
natural sciences.” This 411-page book is indeed an admirable scholarship of
history research with 31-page bibliography of archives and special collections,
newspapers, journals, and other serials, books, articles and unpublished papers
inJapan,Russiaand theU.S.From the point of Japanese
history research, I only want to read Chinese characters (kanji) of original
Japanese in the Index, since one spelling in English usually corresponds to
different kanji or meaning and it is easy now to print out kanji in a book.
The book starts like a
novel. “In 1861, in the little port town of Hakodate, one of the several cities
recently opened by the Japanese government to foreigners, an American captain
bustled about his ship, preparing for a dinner party that would ring in the
arrival of a new cosmopolitan era in Japan.” (p.1). Here the American captain
introduced to his honored guest Consul General I. A. Goshkevich (1814-75), the
head of Russia’s first diplomatic mission to Japan, his compatriot Mikhail
Bakunin, who had escaped from Siberia after over ten year’s imprisonment and
exile, riding piggyback on the newly opened Vladivostok-Hakodate shipping
route. The author states: “The chance meeting in 1861 between Consul General
Goshkevich and Bakunin in revolutionaryJapanrepresents the beginning of an anarchist vision of progress founded on
principles of mutual aid inJapanthat would color Japanese intellectual and cultural life for well over half a
century.” (p.3). While Bakunin left
Japan soon without any publicity and never came back again, about six decades
later, a blind Russian youth, the Esperanist poet Eroshenko’s being deported
caused nationwide disturbance (Chapter 5 Translingual World Order: Language
without culture). “Forweign Minister archives show that the state considered
this blind bard and composer of poems and children’s stories one of the most
dangerous foreigners inJapan.”
(p.285). “When Arishima and Akita asked police why Eroshenko was to be
deported, arguing that he ‘is a mere poet,’ the police replied, ‘Yes, in fact,
that is precisely what is wrong with him.’” (p.293). I noticed this story when
I was under threats from various Japanese governmental agencies since I
organized democratic and human rights activities inJapanin 1989. In 1992 when I was
beaten inTokyoby a Chinese agent, who was
hired byNationalKobeUniversityas a Lay professor because of he provided information of our Chinese students
inJapan, I reported toTokyopolice and received
4-5 hours investigation from uniform and secret polices. They first promised me
“justice” becauseJapanis a rule-by-law society. However, after several weeks of non-action, I was
told that there was no record of my report. Furthermore, I was warned not to
pursue this case anymore, because otherwise I would be charged and be deported.
On the other hand, “n
macro historical perspective, the Russian culture presence in Japan from the
mid-nineteenth to the early twentieth century was, for interpretive purpose,
comparable to that of the Chinese culture presence in the intellectual life of
TokugawaJapanbefore 1860
and the American cultural presence in the intellectual life ofJapanafter the Asia-Pacific War.” (p.5) These statements are really bold enough.
However, interesting though, the stories of Lev Mechnikov (Bakunin and Herzen’s
comrade) in Japan (Chapter 1 Revoliutsiia mmts ishin: The emerging Vision of
Cooperatist Civilization) or Arishima Takeo, who sponsored Osugi Sakae’s Europe
trip nonetheless was not regarded an anarchist (Chapter 4 The History Slide),
or Konishi Masutaro who translated the Chinese classical Lao Zi’s Daode Jing (Tao
te ching, the Way) to Russian (Chapter 2 Anarchist religion: Translation and
conversion beyond Western modernity) do not convey such a tremendous anarchist
influence. The author frequently mentions Lev Tolstoy as “the most translated
author,” however Tolstoy’s popularity was the same in the world and not due to
his anarchist or religion thinking.
To defense, the author
further explains: “The phrase ‘anarchist history’ here does not mean simply a
history about anarchists. Rather, it expresses a view of modern global history
as simultaneously existing, multiple imaged and lived ideas of progress, or
‘modernities’ absent teleological and hierarchical ordering.” (p.6). It is also problematic that the author
frequently utilizes some people’s writings as “historians” authority, such as
“Historians have long defined anarchy…” (p.9), “Similarly, historians have
described anarchism in Japan as a reactionary impulse against the Western
civilizational order, expressing an emotional preoccupation with ‘traditional’
and ‘conservative’ moral and spiritual values threatened by the West.” (p.9-10). In fact, from this judgment, the author
accuses James C. Scott’s The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of
Upland Southeast Asia as “the Western modern conceptual framework that has labeled anarchism in the
first place.” (p.10) From the frequent
uses of “anarchist Kropotkin” or “anarchist theorist Kropotkin” we can feel
that the author is not familiar to anarchist history per se.
Being not a professor
supervising this PH. D dissertation (the author has to summarize each chapter to
guide readers not to get lost), I have less interest in the book’s goal stated
as: “Examining cooperatist anarchism as an intellectual foundation of modern
Japan, Sho Konishi offers a new approach to Japanese history that fundamentally
challenges the ‘logic’ of Western modernity. It looks beyond this foundational
construct of modern history writing to understand people, practices, and
cultural expressions that have been forgotten or dismissed as products of
anti-modern nativist counter urges against the West.” As a comparison, James C. Scott’s book provided
a more consistent perspective to guide much richer contents. It is certainly
welcome to enlarge anarchist account to review modernJapanalternatively, but if you are
not familiar to Japanese or Russian modern history, it is better to read other
materials specifically on anarchism.
Jing Zhao
September 23, 2014
US-Japan-China Comparative Policy
Research Institute
