Home of the Japanese Heart : Socio-historical Contextualization of Gender Politics, Commodity Animism and Super State-Nationalism of Japanese Modernity through the Indigenous Faith

Abstract: This thesis aims to contextualize gender politics, nationalism, and animism as interconnected cultural patterns reflecting 19th century acculturation and post-WWII national reconstruction of Japan. In particular, state-nationalism, hegemonic femininity, commodity animism, uniform fetishsm, and power structure are analyzed through the symbolisms and discourse of the Japanese indigenous faith: Shinto, female practitioners, and followers. There are two points of ideological and linguistic rupture in modern Japan: late-19th century and mid-20th century, in which a large part of this thesis is dedicated to for a holistic contextualization in accordance to historical narrative and events. Materials for this thesis were collected through three separate occasions of field research: winter of 2016 to 2017, summer of 2017, and the spring of 2018 where participant- observation, semi-structured interviews across different platforms, internet ethnography, and archival data analysis were combined. The thesis is separated into three parts: super state- nationalism, gender politics, and commodity animism, and each chapter has its own thematic focus for analysis while the ideological shifts are explained largely based on Ideological State Apparatus and subjectivity. The development of the several thousand year old faith is the preoccupation of this thesis in an attempt to interpret the collective identities, tendencies, and patterns of Japanese modernity.