天皇制国家の二重の裂け目 -新聞連載で􋺷心

Two Cracks of the Empire State System -Rereading Natsume Soseki’s Kokoro as a serial novel in Tokyo Asahi Shimbun

Natsume Soseki s Kokoro, which was published serially in the Tokyo Asahi Shimbun from April 20, 1914 to August 11 of the same year, had a narrative structure that reminded readers of the illness, death, and funeral of Emperor Meiji that had occurred two years before. At that time the newspapers gave enormous coverage to these events, which became a major national story. In addition, the death of General Nogi, who committed suicide on the day of the Emperor s funeral, was a shocking event that had national repercussions. In Kokoro, the deaths of the Emperor and his subject Nogi are echoed by the deaths of the two patriarchs, Sensei and the narrator’s father. This encouraged readers to recall the recent deaths of the Emperor and Nogi, enabling them to reconsider those events. This paper examines the strategy the novel adopts to achieve this and its politics of memory, and reveals how it evoked in contemporary readers the past deaths of the Emperor and Nogi.