ABSTRACT
Framing representations of Rikyū in changing discourses of the nation highlights the ideologies that have shaped Japanese citizenship. Disputes about the parameters of Japanese identity have been a continuing feature of post-war Japanese public life, most recently focusing on issues of historical interpretation and how the education system transmits a selective version of modern history that angers neighboring countries. The aesthetic sphere deserves closer attention because its cultural practices and artifacts have been employed by political elites as ideological tools that seductively naturalize the politically problematic relationship between the state and those governed. The inevitable fall of cherry blossoms conveniently augmented early twentieth-century militarist claims to accept the transience of youthful human life as the greatest wartime gift to the Emperor and nation. Notions such as the four seasons continue to be important elements in aestheticizing the modern Japanese identity for domestic and international consumption. These commodifications of the national identity have helped reinvent post-war Japan as the land of harmony and support a public narrative that does not address imperial atrocities inflicted on neighboring countries.
