ABSTRACT
In outlining the rationale for this monograph, this introduction argues that performance, politics, and translation were imbricated modes of meaning making in early modern Japan. It suggests, as is further detailed in the following chapters, that the Japanese concepts of liberty and revolution were crafted over decades through a process of embodied memory that was centered on the performance of the Freedom and People’s Rights Movement. For nearly a century, the Rights Movement served as a site of performance for foundational national concepts that remain contested today.
