(14 February 1900 – 18 May 1952) was a Japanese aesthetician,

film theorist Film theory is a set of scholarly approaches within the academic discipline of film or cinema studies that began in the 1920s by questioning the formal essential attributes of motion pictures; and that now provides conceptual frameworks for unde ...

librarian A librarian is a person who professionally works managing information. Librarians' common activities include providing access to information, conducting research, creating and managing information systems, creating, leading, and evaluating educat ...

, and

social activist Activism consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make Social change, changes in society toward a perceived common good. Forms of activism range from ...

Career

Born in Hiroshima Prefecture, Nakai studied philosophy at

Kyoto University , or , is a National university, national research university in Kyoto, Japan. Founded in 1897, it is one of the former Imperial Universities and the second oldest university in Japan. The university has ten undergraduate faculties, eighteen gra ...

, particularly

aesthetics Aesthetics (also spelled esthetics) is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of beauty and taste (sociology), taste, which in a broad sense incorporates the philosophy of art.Slater, B. H.Aesthetics ''Internet Encyclopedia of Ph ...

under Yasukazu Fukuda. He started the

dōjinshi , also Romanization of Japanese, romanized as ', is the Japanese term for self-published print works, such as magazines, manga, and novels. Part of a wider category of ''doujin'' (self-published) works, ''doujinshi'' are often derivative of exi ...

''Bi hihyō'' in 1930, which changed its name to ''Sekai bunka'' in 1935. He became a lecturer at Kyoto University while being active in left-wing social movements, protesting Japan's tilt towards

fascism Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hie ...

and promoting popular forms of culture through such concepts at the "logic of the committee." Nakai co-founded the popular culture tabloid '' Doyōbi'' (''Saturday'') in 1936. However, the magazine was discontinued in 1937 with his arrest for anti-fascist political activity under the

Peace Preservation Law The was a Japanese law enacted on April 22, 1925, with the aim of allowing the Special Higher Police to more effectively suppress alleged socialists and communists. In addition to criminalizing forming an association with the aim of altering the ...

. Nakai also lost his university position as a result of the arrest. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, he continued his political activism by teaching philosophy as part of the Hiroshima Culture Movement and by running for governor of Hiroshima Prefecture, only losing by a narrow margin.Leslie Pincus, "A Salon for the Soul: Nakai Masakazu and the Hiroshima Culture Movement," ''positions'' 10.1 (2002), pp. 173-194. He was appointed the first Vice Librarian (''fukukanchō'') of the

National Diet Library The is the national library of Japan and among the largest libraries in the world. It was established in 1948 for the purpose of assisting members of the in researching matters of public policy. The library is similar in purpose and scope to ...

in 1948.

Selected bibliography

* * * Nakai Masakazu (2016). “La logique des comités.” Translated by Michael Lucken. ''European Journal of Japanese Philosophy'' 1: 289–357. * Kaffen, Philip (2018). “Nakai Masakazu and the Cinematic Imperative.” ''Positions'' 26, no. 3: 483–515. * Lucken, Michael (2016). ''Nakai Masakazu: naissance de la théorie critique au japon''. Dijon: Les Presses du réel. * Lucken, Michael (2018). “On the Origins of New Left and Counterculture Movements in Japan: Nakai Masakazu and Contemporary Thought.” ''Positions'' 26, no. 4: 593–618. * Moore, Aaron (2009). “Para-existential Forces of Intervention: Nakai Masakazu’s Theory of Technology and Critique of Capitalism.” ''Positions'' 17, no. 1: 127–157.

References

External links

Nakai Masakazu
at

Aozora Bunko Aozora Bunko (, , also known as the "Open Air Library") is a Japanese digital library. This online collection encompasses several thousand works of Japanese-language fiction and non-fiction. These include out-of-copyright books or works that t ...

(in Japanese) {{DEFAULTSORT:Nakai, Masakazu Film theorists 1900 births 1952 deaths Philosophers of art People from Hiroshima Prefecture Japanese activists Japanese anti-fascists Japanese politicians Japanese librarians Kyoto University alumni Academic staff of Kyoto University 20th-century Japanese philosophers Activists from Hiroshima Prefecture