Reżim emocjonalny a twórczość Yosano Akiko

This article analyzes the poetry of Yosano Akiko (1878–1942) as a site of negotiation between individual emotional experience and the emotional regimes of the Japanese Empire from the Meiji period through the Second World War. Focusing on Kimi shinitamau koto nakare, often interpreted as a timeless anti-war poem, the study argues that such readings obscure the historically specific emotional conflicts that shaped its composition. Drawing on William M. Reddy’s theory of emotional regimes and emotional liberty, the article approaches Yosano’s poetry as a form of emotive practice enabling emotional navigation within shifting political contexts. Early poems are examined as acts of emotional resistance to state-imposed norms of loyalty and sacrifice, while later works reveal growing ambivalence and attempts at emotional stabilization through metaphors of endurance, reproduction, and renewal. The article further explores Yosano’s critique of parliamentary politics during the Taishō period and traces her eventual alignment with a fully internalized militaristic emotional regime. Overall, the study demonstrates how Yosano’s oeuvre illuminates both the possibilities and the limits of emotional liberty under an increasingly rigid political order.