Deterritorializing a War Song: Politics of Socialist Playfulness in Kaeuta-making During the Russo-Japanese War (1904-5) in Japan

• In Event: Nationalism and Music in Pre-War Japan

Abstract

Recently, creative chanting and singing in the protest against the security bill in Japan have called general attention as a novel means to unite unorganized participants. Needless to say, however, chants and songs in protests are not unique to the recent event. Older activities like the Freedom and Popular Rights Movement of the 1880s have involved appropriation of popular songs. A similar yet less studied case is the subsequent protest during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-5 by Japan’s first socialist group, Commoners’ Society (Heiminsha). Scholars have overlooked Heiminsha’s appropriation of popular songs mainly due to their own assumption of political significance that mainly valued high cultural formats. This paper explores Heiminsha’s activities with a particular focus on a song The Chain of Wealth (Tomi no kusari) published in its magazine. Its lyrics convey anti-capitalist and anti-war messages while the melody is burrowed in its entirety from a war song (gunka), a genre widely circulating as a form of nationalist entertainment. As a “changing song” (kaeuta), a playful practice in which only the lyrics of a song are replaced, The Chain of Wealth deterritorialized the established gunka and squatted with a message of solidarity against the war that exploited the poor. I argue that such playfulness in propaganda as kaeuta with extraordinary lyrics on a familiar melody demonstrated a political significance attracting both audiences and activists themselves amid the state persecution. More broadly, my paper reconsiders the role of amusement in protests to complicate our general understanding of the political.

Author

• Tomoko Seto, Yonsei University