Ever since the late nineteenth century, all Japanese had been indoctrinated to believe that the supreme object of veneration was the kokutai, or emperor-centered “national entity”—a misty concept written with two ideographs meaning literally “country” and “body.” From the mid-1920s on, criticism of the kokutai was a major criminal offense. Glorifying nikutai, as Tamura did with spellbinding effectiveness, amounted to a complete repudiation of kokutai, a shocking inversion of the body (tai) to be worshipped. Now the only body deserving of veneration was the “flesh” (niku)—the sensual body—of
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