In 1907, amidst the national triumph following the Russo-Japanese War and the domestic unrest symbolised by the Hibiya riots, Haga Yaichi published Kokuminsei jūron [Ten Essays on National Character]. As an heir to the kokugaku tradition, a “father” of Japan’s literary canon, and a transmitter of German philology, Haga identified ten characteristics of the Japanese people in this widely circulated volume. While scholars in the 1970s embraced it as a precursor to nihonjinron, recent scholarship has reinterpreted it primarily as a tool of governmental suppression. This presentation challenges both interpretations through a close reading and contextual analysis. It aims to expand our understanding beyond familiar themes of imperial loyalism or agrarian nostalgia, reframing kokuminsei as a dynamic site of identity production.  Details and registration here