The Journal of Japanese Studies

Abstract:

The material, aesthetic experience of participation in public speaking and debate was an important factor in the spread of democratic sensibilities in Meiji Japan. This essay traces Fukuzawa Yukichi's institutionalization of speechmaking and debate through the Mita Enzetsukai and his manual on oratory, Kaigiben. It reveals how rural people transformed these models in radical, democratic ways. This narrative shows how a new public sphere was literally built by people as they constructed new meeting spaces and practiced new ways of orienting themselves in public space. These democratic sensibilities were learned practically rather than didactically.