A Research Into City Public Space Through The Formation Of Japan Nation-State

Given the rise of nationalism in the late Tokugawa Period and the contributions of Meiji Restoration to the combination of nation and state, the establishment of Meiji State, which has been widely discussed from a perspective of the transition from Agrarian society to Industrial society, should be viewed as the formation of nation-state as well. Despite constructive achievements gained in the research of this field, the construction of Japan Nation-State at the level of everyday life, from which a micro perspective can be obtained to reconsider Japan Nation-state and understand the social transformation of Japan, has been merely studied. Considering this, this thesis focuses on city public space-an intermediate object related to Authorities, Elites and Citizens of the Meiji Period and puts a particular emphasis to the public space in Tokyo, the capital of Meiji State, on purpose of clarifying the formation of Japan Nation-State at everyday life level and its characteristics.The whole text mainly consists of three chapters:Chapter 1 analyzes the nationalization of city public space itself.Chapter 2 and 3 discuss the nationalization of body in public space. Chapter 2 focuses on the production of qualified body in public space which regards body as an object.Chapter 3 observes the national ceremonies and events in public space in which body plays a subjective role.Based on observation and analysis of the nationalization of space and the nationalization in space, it can be concluded that not only was the city public space itself re-constructed to internalize and externalize the requirements of nation-state in order to maintain and exhibit the Meiji State, it also functioned as an apparatus in the process of nationalization and national integration. On one hand, on occasions of everyday life, the requirements imposed to body were reflected and implemented in city public space in various forms to discipline body through repetitious practices. On the other hand, on special occasions such as national ceremonies and events, public places were used as the stage of those events, forming a structure of centre-subcentre-periphery covering the whole territory to product and propagate nationalism through the splendid performance of monarchy and the repetitious participation of body.In summary, through the formation of Japan Nation-State, city public space functioned as a triple role-the object molded by modern knowledge and discourse, the training site of qualified body and the ideological state apparatus of nationalism. Meanwhile, as an object containing multiple subjects and cultures, public space offers a perspective to analyze the characteristics of Japan Nation-State. Following characteristics can be observed through the analysis of public space. Firstly, nationalization in public space shows a negative attitude towards popular culture, reflecting a characteristic of heteronomy. Secondly, it can be observed that authorities monopolize the explanation of publicness, leading to the consequence of Individual’s selfless devotion to State. Thirdly, under the construction of Meiji State, foreign culture introduced as a module and standard encountered traditional culture in public space forming a mismatch, which on one hand demonstrates the conflicts between multiple cultures, on the other hand implies the hybrid pattern of Japanese culture.