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Ishikawa Sanshirō's Geographical Imagination Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 January 2025
In retrospect, the publication in 1925 of Ishikawa Sanshirō's first full-length book, Hishinkaron to jinsei (Non-evolutionary theory and human life), seemed like a warning cry. In his view, Japan had embarked on an accelerating course of development, its trajectory set by an unquestioned belief in linear progress, and dangers lay ahead. Shinpo (progress 進歩), the first word of the volume, was emblematic of the trappings of the new mentality that inhabited the country's collective mind-set. Ishikawa decried the pursuit of progress for its own sake – what he considered as the robot-like adherence of his compatriots to a historicist conception of time and social change to the detriment of lived experience, or domin seikatsu. The critique of modern temporality and investigation of alternative modes of living by Ishikawa together with a loose network of like-minded thinkers constitute the core of this chapter.
As he observed, “people of the world are marching blindly forward, forward; they are not marching towards any goal. Just marching itself has become the goal”. Ishikawa's vehement opposition to historicist conceptions of human development resulted in his harsh criticism of Darwin's theory of evolution – at least under the terms according to which he understood it. Against prevailing views, he constantly doubted the validity of its scientific tenets. But in doing so he was especially targeting the distorted popularised form of the concept, fearing its pervasive social implications. Affirming that “higher status, lower status, perfection, imperfection, these classifications are human inventions”, he lambasted the belief in civilisational hierarchy that defined his era.
The conception of time as evolutionary, linear and inevitably leading to a better future permeated social consciousness after the Meiji Restoration. Celebrated intellectuals such as Katō Hiroyuki (1836-1916) and Fukuzawa Yukichi readily endorsed it. Using an ascending ladder of modernity as a measure, it suggested a hierarchy between countries on the basis of their material advancement and compatibility with a Western model of civilisational development. From this perspective the state appears as the primary mover with regard to historical change, a notion that shaped Japan's domestic and foreign policy.
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