Portait d'un paysan "réformateur" dans la société féodale au Japon, le cas de Ninomiya Sontoku

Abstract

Summary - Portrait of a "Reformer" Countryman in Feudal Society, the case of Ninomiya Sontoku Ninomiya Sontoku was a countryman who worked in the first half of the XlXth century, especially in the Tochigi and the Ibarabi areas. To contemporary Japanese, he is best known as a laborious and patient person, despite any unfavourable childhood situation. Before Japan's defeat in the Second World War, most primary school classrooms had a statue of Sontoku as a child, carrying logs on his back. He was litterally the ethical ideal of obedience, docility and assiduity but also a loyal Japanese citizen. However, after the War, the image of Sontoku was marked by one of the sharpest diclines of all those in traditionnal culture. Today, the Hôntoku movement inspired by his work still exists, but its importance is minor, in comparison to what it had at the beginning of the century. None the less, we must question whether the image of Sontoku as a docile and diligent child truly reflects his activities. Curiously, the use of his image intentionally ignores his activities as an adult, the image of the innovator of the countryside. In our article, we first relate his biographical data in order to present an overview of all his activities ; then we analyse his theorical of writings. In the process, we emphasize the fundamentally practical nature of his thought, his omnipresent judgement of On (kind of obligation) and his important dichotomy concerning the Way of the Sky and the Way of Human kind. While analysing the apparent monotony in one of his shihô, we notice that his monotonous style deliberatly conceals his intent to instruct the less cultivated farmers. Next, by referring to school text books, we take a look at the way of his posthumous image - one which is ideologically marked by nationalism - was used. In conclusion, we evaluate his scope and limits as an innovator of the countryside in the context of decaying feudal society.