오코토바를 통해 다시 묻는 ‘상징’의 의미: 헤이세이 시대 천황의 이중성

초록

This study aims to deal with Emperor Akihito’s Okotoba as a literary, ideological, and political text. “Message from His Majesty: The Emperor (August 8, 2016)” is a text where the Emperor himself defines the role of the emperor as the symbol of the state. Here, it is worth recalling that the concept of a symbol itself is an ambiguous and politically charged term from the beginning. In this vein, under the symbolic emperor system in postwar Japan, the emperor’s duties cannot be regarded simply as non-political. This study focuses on the body politic through which the Emperor represents himself by analyzing Emperor Akihito’s Okotoba. Through this, I reveal how the Emperor intends to represent Japan and the Japanese people. As a result, this study suggests that the Emperor Akihito is planning the body politic regenerated in an aging society as an institution, creating a community of affect through physicality that speaks and listens to the people, and functioning as the symbol of the state and the unity of the people through the body that prays and travels. As such, Emperor Akihito represents the duality of the past and the future, authority and power, a symbol of the Japanese state and unity of the people, and the kokutai and democracy.

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