(14 February 1900 - 18 May 1952) was a Japanese aesthetician, film theorist,

librarian A librarian is a person who works professionally in a library providing access to information, and sometimes social or technical programming, or instruction on information literacy to users. The role of the librarian has changed much over time ...

, and

social activist Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range fr ...

Career

Born in

Hiroshima Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Hiroshima Prefecture has a population of 2,811,410 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of 8,479 km² (3,274 sq mi). Hiroshima Prefecture borders Okayama Prefecture to the ...

, Nakai studied philosophy at

Kyoto University , mottoeng = Freedom of academic culture , established = , type = Public (National) , endowment = ¥ 316 billion (2.4 billion USD) , faculty = 3,480 (Teaching Staff) , administrative_staff = 3,978 (Total Staff) , students = 22 ...

, particularly

aesthetics Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, Epistemology, knowledge, Ethics, values, Philosophy of ...

under Yasukazu Fukuda. He started the

dōjinshi , also 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 existing works and created by ...

''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, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy and th ...

and promoting popular forms of culture through such concepts at the "logic of the committee." Nakai co-founded the popular culture tabloid ''

Doyōbi The ''Doyōbi'' (Japanese: 土曜日, ) was an anti-fascist newspaper published in Kyoto, Japan, from July 1936 to November 1937. The ''Doyōbi'' ("Saturday", in Japanese) was named after the ''Vendredi'' ("Friday"), an organ of the French Popul ...

'' (''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 socialists and communists. In addition to criminalizing forming an association with the aim of altering the '' koku ...

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

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, he continued his political activism by teaching philosophy as part of the Hiroshima Culture Movement and by running for governor of

, 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 t ...

in 1948.

Selected bibliography

* *

References

External links

Nakai Masakazu
at

Aozora Bunko Aozora Bunko (, literally the "Blue Sky Library", also known as the "Open Air Library") is a Japanese language, Japanese digital library. This online collection encompasses several thousands of works of Japanese-language fiction and non-fiction. ...

(in Japanese) {{DEFAULTSORT:Nakai, Masakazu Japanese philosophers 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 Kyoto University faculty 20th-century Japanese philosophers