Tosaka Jun : a critical reader /
edited by Ken C. Kawashima, Fabian Schäfer and Robert Stolz.
- Ithaca, New York : East Asia Program, Cornell University, (c)2013.
- 1 online resource (313 pages).
- Cornell East Asia series, number 168 .
Includes bibliographies and index.
The principle of everydayness and historical time / On space (introduction and conclusion) / The academy and journalism / Laughter, comedy, and humor / The fate of Japanism : from fascism to emperorism / Theory of the intelligentsia and theory of technology : proposing to reexamine the theory of technology / Liberalist philosophy and materialism : against the two types of liberalist philosophy / The police function / Film as a reproduction of the present : custom and the masses / Film art and film : toward the function of abstraction / Here, now : everyday space as cultural critique / The actuality of journalism and the possibility of everyday critique / The dialectic of laughter and Tosaka's critical theory / Immaterial technique and mass intelligence : Tosaka Jun on technology / Filmic materiality and historical materialism : Tosaka Kun and the prosthetics of sensation / Notes toward a critical analysis of chronic recession and ideology : Tosaka Jun on the police function / The multitude and the Holy Family : empire, fascism, and the war machine / trans. Robert Stolz -- trans. Robert Stolz -- trans. Chris Kai-Jones -- trans. Christopher Ahn -- trans. John Person -- trans. Takeshi Kimoto -- trans. John Person -- trans. Ken C. Kawashima -- trans. Gavin Walker -- trans. Gavin Walker -- Robert Stolz -- Fabian Schäfer -- Katsuya Hirano -- Takeshi Kimoto -- Gavin Walker -- Ken C. Kawashima -- Katsuhiko Endo.
Tosaka Jun (1900-1945) was one of modern Japan's most unique, urgent, and important critics of capitalism, Japanese imperialism, the emperor system, 'Japanism', and everyday life in imperial Japan. A philosopher trained at Kyoto University, Tosaka made major contributions to the advancement of Marxism and historical materialism in Japan, most notably as the central figure at the Yuibutsuron kenkyūkai. His writings reveal a true renaissance thinker, moving from the history and philosophy of science to profound and brilliant studies of everyday life, media, fascism, militarism, and what Tosaka called 'The Japanese ideology'. His Marxist philosophy especially sought to move beyond a mechanistic Marxism, and to criticize the diverse ways in which cultural productions of the nation, the empire, and 'Japan', were deeply implicated in capitalist exploitation, imperialist domination in Asia, and fascist war.