Kokumin no Tomo

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Kokumin no Tomo
CategoriesPolitical magazine
PublisherMin'yūsha
FounderTokutomi Soho
Founded1887
First issue15 February 1887
Final issue1898
CountryJapan
Based inTokyo
LanguageJapanese

Kokumin no Tomo (国民之友; The People's Friend) was a Japanese language political and general interest magazine that existed between 1887 and 1898, and therefore, one of the periodicals of the Meiji period. The magazine was headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. It was one of the earliest examples of independent and coherent intellectual magazines in Japan.[1][2]

History and profile[edit]

Kokumin no Tomo was established by Tokutomi Soho in 1887.[3][4] The first issue appeared on 15 February 1887.[1] It was modelled on the American news magazine, The Nation.[2]

The publisher of Kokumin no Tomo was Min'yūsha, a publishing company also founded by Tokutomi Soho which was based in Tokyo.[1] Although the magazine mostly covered politics, it also published articles on literary and cultural topics.[1] Kokumin no Tomo had several supplements.[5] Several examples of the ancient and modern Eastern and Western poems were first featured in one of these supplements dated August 1889 which are called Omokage, verses emerged in the Meiji period.[5]

One of the regular contributors of Kokumin no Tomo was Yamaji Aizan.[6] The magazine folded in 1898.[5][7]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d Yamaji Aizan (1999). Essays on the Modern Japanese Church: Christianity in Meiji Japan. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press. pp. 4–5, 138. ISBN 978-0-939512-93-5.
  2. ^ a b Motohiro Kondo (2004). "The Development of Monthly Magazines in Japan". The Journal of Japanese Society for Global Social and Cultural Studies. 1 (1): 4. doi:10.11424/gscs.1.1_1.
  3. ^ "Catalogue. Kokumin no tomo". National Library of Australia. 1887.
  4. ^ Hiroshi Fujita (July 1994). "English-language periodicals in Japan". Japan Quarterly. 41 (3). ProQuest 234909881.
  5. ^ a b c Teresa Ciapparoni La Rocca (1992). "Intersections. Western Presence at Work in Japanese Literary Magazines". Rivista degli studi orientali. 66 (1/2): 185.
  6. ^ F. G. Notehelfer (Spring 2001). "Essays on the Modern Japanese Church: Christianity in Meiji Japan by Yamaji Aizan and Graham Squires (Book review)". Monumenta Nipponica. 56 (1). doi:10.2307/2668460. JSTOR 2668460.
  7. ^ Muta Kazue; Marcella S. Gregory (1994). "Images of the Family in Meiji Periodicals: The Paradox Underlying the Emergence of the "Home"". U.S.-Japan Women's Journal. English Supplement (7): 56. JSTOR 42772076.

Further reading[edit]

  • De Lange, William (2023). A History of Japanese Journalism: State of Affairs and Affairs of State. Toyo Press. ISBN 978-94-92722-393.