Remonstrating in Modern Japan: An Analysis of Tanaka Chigaku’s Kokka kangyō as Media Event

By focusing on Tanaka Chigaku (1861–1939), one of the key figures in modern Nichiren Buddhism, this paper sheds light on how the medieval practice of kokka kangyō (“admonishing the state”) was revived and refashioned in the Meiji era (1868–1912). This was the period in which Japan’s Constitution of 1889 guaranteed freedom of religion, establishing it as a matter of personal choice, and, barring civic responsibilities, excluded from government affairs. Drawing on “media event theory,” I argue that the Meiji Constitution’s parameters guided Tanaka’s kokka kangyō efforts to target ordinary subjects rather than the government itself. His remonstration strategies involved the conspicuous circulation of his self-published tracts that are best understood as a type of media event: intentionally preplanned and staged as “extraordinary” and “historic,” advertised in advance, and intensively reported on and experienced by engaged adherents who turned state remonstrating into a form of proselytizing via print media.