ABSTRACT
Nihonfukeiron (1894), widely recognised as Shiga's masterpiece, is also one of his most controversial works. Debate centres on three main issues: his purpose in writing and publishing the book; the degree to which the book advocated or encouraged imperialism; and, given its great popularity, whether it influenced Japan's march toward the aggression of the Second World War. Critics, such as Iwai Tadakuma, Maeda Ai, Mita Hiro and SaW Yoshimaru, have claimed that Nihonfukeiron was an imperialistic document that may have influenced the Japanese towards the excess of patriotism that culminated in the War. However, we will discover that Shiga's immediate goal in praising Japan's geography was to arouse national awareness and pride and to alert his countrymen to Japan's potentially important position in the fast-changing world order. Furthermore, Nihon fukeiron was a rational geographic treatise and travelogue in the western style that suggested a new way of viewing the Japanese landscape. It was Shiga's attempt to express the abstract theory of kokusui in a more practical way and to provide concrete evidence of Japan's 'excellence and uniqueness'.
