Kita Ikki and the Politics of Coercion

Abstract

For even now, over sixty years since his death, Kita Ikki (18831937) remains an enigma. Though one ofJapan's most written-about figures,' there is no agreement on what Kita actually stood for. Some condemn Kita as an ultra-nationalist, the symbol of Japanese fascism; others see in him the first authentic Japanese revolutionary. Though generally regarded as an extremist, he has legions of admirers, who come from both sides of the political spectrum.2 Lef-